Truck Falls Through Ice in Jewell Lake

A Ford F–150 fell through the ice on Sunday in Jewell Lake in Alcona County, and a towing crew spent all day Friday working on bringing it back to shore.

A fisherman left his truck on the lake overnight during the local fishing tournament, as he could not get it to start. The truck is completely submerged, estimated to be about 12 to 14 feet under the surface. A crew from Woody’s Towing has attached a cable to the truck and is slowly pulling it to the shore. The truck is estimated to be 2600 feet from where it fell through to the shore. The crew may not be able to get the truck back to the surface until tomorrow.

“Luckily where it went in the lake is deep enough, so we’re going to take it underwater until it hits about eight feet of water, and then we’ll have to cut the ice until shore because due to the ice thickness it’s not strong enough to support it, we can’t raise it back up on the ice,” said Bill Wood of Woody’s Towing.

This specific crew has dealt with water recovery like this before, so it shouldn’t be a problem for them to recover the truck.

“We do quite a few a year,” said Wood. “We specialize in the water recoveries. Airplanes, helicopters, vehicles, snowmobiles, four wheelers, you name it that goes in, we recover it.”

Crews are using chainsaws to cut into the ice to make it easier to transport the truck through the water.