His summer visit back to the prairie province turned out to be a bit more exciting than Rob Lachambre expected.
The Estevan-native, who now lives in Ottawa, was on his way to his hometown with his family from a day in Moose Jaw. Outside of Drinkwater, Lachambre and his father watched as a "dust bowl" tore across the highway half a mile in front of them, followed by a large splash on the side of the road.
"As we were coming up, my dad slowed down to look. We could see dirt tracks going across the highway, and then a truck upside down in the ditch," said Lachambre of the scene.
The family pulled their vehicle over to the side of the road, and Lachambre waded into the waist-deep slough to check out the accident.
"When you see a car in the ditch normally, you kind of think to yourself, 'I sure hope everyone was OK,'" he said. "But the whole front half of his Jeep was underwater. I kind of knew that everyone wasn't OK."
As he approached the vehicle, Lachambre said he was hoping that there would be no one inside, but when he was close enough, he could see that the driver was stuck upside down in his seat and that his head and shoulders were submerged. Lachambre said he wasn't worried about his own safety, considering the water was shallow, but concentrated his efforts on getting the man out of the vehicle.
By the time Lachambre had removed the man from his Jeep, several other vehicles had pulled over.
Once the man was safetly away from the accident, Lachambre headed back into the water to check for more passengers - thankfully the driver was travelling alone.
The man, a Drinkwater resident, was unconscious at first, but was brought around after awhile. He had no idea how he hit the ditch, but Lachambre pointed out that it looked like the wheels of his Jeep had caught a bit of a lip on the highway, and when the driver over-corrected, he ended up shooting straight across the road into the ditch.
The driver, upon learning the details of his rescue, hugged and thanked Lachambre for saving his life. Members of the RCMP were called to the scene, and the driver was released at the scene after being checked for injuries.
