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Groton Daily Independent
Tuesday, Aug. 22, 2017 ~ Vol. 25 - No. 053 ~ 14 of 45
News from the
South Dakota teenage driver rescued after truck-train crash
BLUNT, S.D. (AP) — A teenage boy from central South Dakota who was trapped after the truck he was driving crashed into a train is alive thanks to four men.
The 16-year-old was driving a truck hauling two semitrailers full of wheat Thursday near Blunt when he slammed into the side of a Rapid City, Pierre & Eastern Railroad train, the Pierre Capital Journal reported. The teenager was rescued by Chris Schafer, a former re ghter and nearby driver; two railroad engineers
who were on the train; and a Blunt re ghter, who wished to remain anonymous.
Blunt Rural Fire Department received a call about the crash, but the two locomotives on the north side of the highway blocked the town from the crash scene. Fire ghters were forced to nd an improvised
route by using a farmer’s driveway and driving across a eld to get to the scene.
Until then, Schafer and the two railroad engineers tried to put out the re and pull the teenager out. The engineers had re extinguishers that Schafer says didn’t put out the re entirely but made a big difference. “It was just, I had to get there,” Schafer said. “For one thing, to put the re out. And the second priority
was to get the kid out.”
A re ghter managed to get to the scene by going between train cars to help the other three get the
teen out of the car. The wheat that lled the cab nearly had buried the boy.
“The door miraculously opened up and grain poured out and we could pull him right out of there,” Schafer
said. “Everything, the timing, was perfect. If we had been (driving) a minute ahead or a minute behind, that window of opportunity would have been gone.”
Schafer said the cab was engulfed in re within minutes of pulling the teenager out.
Now a tax equalization director for Hamlin County, Schafer was a re ghter for 25 years and an emer- gency medical technician for 12 years.
The teenager is recovering from critical injuries in a Sioux Falls hospital. Highway Patrol of cials said charges are pending against the teenager. ___
Information from: Pierre Capital Journal, http://www.capjournal.com
Anthrax causes cattle deaths in Pennington County
PIERRE, S.D. (AP) — Anthrax is blamed for recent deaths in a cattle herd in southeastern Pennington County.
South Dakota state veterinarian Dustin Oedekoven says at least nine adult cattle died suddenly last week in the herd. The herd had not been vaccinated against anthrax.
Anthrax spores survive inde nitely in contaminated alkaline soils. Nearly all parts of South Dakota have the potential of an anthrax outbreak under ideal climatic conditions. Drought, oods and wind can expose anthrax spores to grazing livestock.
Livestock producers are advised that anthrax should be suspected in cases of sudden death. Suspected cases should be reported immediately to a local veterinarian or to the state veterinarian at the South Dakota Animal Industry Board.
Anthrax can be transmitted to people and other animals.
Standing Rock tribe completes rural water supply pipeline
FORT YATES, N.D. (AP) — The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe has completed a pipeline connecting the North Dakota and South Dakota portions of a rural water delivery system.
The tribe completed the pipeline with help from the Bureau of Reclamation. The pipeline is part of the Standing Rock Rural Water Supply System.