Toyota amphicar

[BigWheelArchives]

4-3-03

Received a call from Freetown Police to respond to Rte. 79 Assonet for a vehicle that rolled out of a yard down a steep embankment and into the Assonet River. The doors and windows were closed so the car floated out into the fast current and down the center of the river, evidently the car got hung up in the middle of the river on a stump.

 

We located the vehicle's owner and they gave us written permission to recover their car. There was no access to the car from shore, and where the car was hung up in the shore area was low and a wet land sensitive area. We brought in our 60 ton rotator so we would have the reach to lift the car over a 5 foot wall out of the wet land and on to our ramp truck. Our diver went out into the river with his equipment to hook up the car to the long wire rope from the crane. the rigging equipment was carried out into the river in our rubber recovery boat. Our diver dove under the car and secured a sling to the lower suspension. We then hooked up a snatch block to a large tree on the shore to direct the car to the only slightly clear spot where it could be brought in without cutting any trees out of the way or climbing up the steep bank and doing environmental damage. The local environmentalists were going to make an issue and an expensive clean up would have occurred. After the car was winched into this area our crane lifted it straight up and onto our ramp truck. We closed up the rotator and completely checked the area for oil, transmission fluid, and debris and the area was clear and everything was back to the way it was before the recovery with no issues from the local environmentalists.