An alleged drunk driver and an infant were rescued by first responders Friday morning from a raging creek in Lumpkin County, authorities said.
Video by the Dahlonega Nugget shows the moments firefighters used a ladder to help get Andrea Marie McMeans, 29, of Dahlonega, to safety. Her 2-month old boy had been rescued prior to the video starting.
The Georgia State Patrol said McMeans was driving her 1996 Ford Ranger on Clay Creek Falls Road in the rain when she went down a small embankment, hit a tree and ended up in the creek. Her truck was then pulled about 300 feet downstream, where it became stuck.
Both McMeans and her child were properly restrained at the time of the crash, the GSP said.
However, arrest warrants were obtained for McMeans for DUI, DUI child endangerment and failure to maintain lane.
Lumpkin County Battalion Chief Daniel Morris told Channel 2 Action News the incident happened just before 9 a.m.
“We arrived on scene, found the truck in the middle of the river and half of the truck was still submerged,” Morris said. “The cab was still sticking out of the water.”
He told Channel 2 the current was too strong for firefighters to wade through, so they had to develop a Plan B.
“We set up a rope-rigging situation with a ladder and was able to extricate both the mother and the infant out of the truck,” Morris said.
The video shows the water rushing around the pickup truck with the water level reaching just below the driver’s-side window.
No one was hurt during the incident, but the woman and the baby were taken to a hospital as a precaution. The GSP said she will be arrested when she’s finished being treated.
Firefighters are waiting for the water level to recede before removing the truck from the creek.
The GSP’s investigation is ongoing, and anyone with information is asked to contact them at 770-205-5400.
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