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ITD remembers Turrell’s frigid lake rescue

With a throaty growl, the big diesel engine of the road grader sprang to life on that early Friday morning of May 20, 1977, putting into motion a series of events that culminated with a pickup pitching headlong into the cold waters of Beauty Bay.

Jim and Rosa Stowe, owners of the local lumber mill, were on their way down the grade alongside the bay just after 9 a.m. in the family’s white 1965 GMC pickup. Luckily, a 25-year-old Idaho Transportation Department employee named Tim Turrell also started moving when the road grader did.

Turrell has often speculated that when the grader started moving, Jim caught the motion out of the corner of his eye and stomped on the gas. The V8 engine in the little truck lurched forward, sending the couple down a 50-foot embankment into about 15 feet of water in Coeur d’Alene Lake.

Jim told his daughter-in-law, Edwina, that he had also just purchased a manual-transmission Subaru and got the pedals confused with the automatic-transmission pickup. So, when he tried to push on the clutch and brake, there was no clutch, and one foot instead hit the accelerator, causing the pickup to suddenly lunge over the bank.

Ironically, crews were in the process of installing guardrail. They were widening Idaho State Highway 97 (then known as Highway 95 Alternate) over the 6% grade. Workers were adding a foot and a half width to each lane to the road built in the '30s, along with five-foot shoulders or clearance zone, and replacing some culverts for better drainage. Of course, the guardrail was to come later in the project.

Turrell, who had been setting barricades but typically would have been at another part of the project running machinery, tore off his hat, glasses and vest, and had one boot off when Jim popped up from the depths.

“He couldn’t swim a lick, and that water was still very cold,” Turrell recalls. In fact, neither Jim nor Rosa could swim. The days were still springlike — the temperatures were only just starting to hit the low 60’s for the daytime high, so it was well below that at mid-morning.

Tim put Jim over the only part of the car he could, the rear bumper, and set to fishing out Rosa, who had pushed Jim out of the car but was still stuck in the cab.

A nearby fisherman came over with his boat, and the Stowe’s were loaded onto the craft along with another department employee, who was an EMT. They were then rushed to the local hospital, treated, and released.The Stowes are pictured in inset above, after being released from the hospital

Now 65, Turrell, lives about a mile from ITD’s North Idaho (District 1) offices in Coeur d’Alene, retired from ITD in 2007 after more than three decades of service. He is moving to Post Falls next year when his wife, Peggy, retires from the Coeur d’Alene School District.

He started part time with ITD in April 1970, working summers at the department between stints at North Idaho College and Idaho State University, where he played baseball as a 6-foot-4-inch, right-handed pitcher with questionable control.

The Stowes, married 40 years and a few weeks at the time of the incident, gave Turrell a nice watch, which he still has, and he was recognized for his efforts by then-District Engineer Merle Harding (far left), Department Director Darrell Manning, and Board Chairman Dean Tisdale (far right).

Governor John Evans also congratulated Turrell on his heroism.

Harding summed up the feelings of the District and Department when he stated:

"It is with a great deal of pride that the District commends Tim Turrell for the immediate action taken to rescue Mr. and Mrs. Stowe. This is an example of the highest order of conduct by an Idaho Division of Highways' employee in serving the highway user."

“Turrell, without regard for his personal safety, performed an act of heroism which saved the lives of two people in the water of Coeur d'Alene Lake. Unhesitating action on Tim's part when he saw Mr. and Mrs. Stowes' pickup truck go over the Beauty Bay grade into the water was the margin necessary to save the Stowes' lives--neither victim could swim,” Harding elaborated.

Turrell’s actions meant Jim and Rosa were able to spend another 22 years together — Jim died in April of 1999 and Rosa a few years later, in December of 2003.

“I stayed in touch with them for quite awhile,” said Turrell. Tim still occasionally sees one of the Stowe boys in town and reminisces about that day. Luckily, all five kids (Don, Stan, Silvia, Grant and Susan) were grown and not in the vehicle when it went over the side into the lake.

In another family connection, Edwina and Don's son, Big Ed, played baseball at Lake City High, where Tim's son, Trace, was coach.

Turrell (pictured right in 2014) is a little uncomfortable with the accolades. “It wasn’t all about me. I was just in the right place at the right time.”

“Jim and Rose spoke very highly of Tim, and often said how thankful they were that he acted as quickly as he did,” recalls Edwina. “They had a very special place in their hearts for him and his actions on that day.”

As warmer temperatures begin to make a consistent appearance throughout the state, aquatic adventures will again soon take center stage. If not for the quick actions of ITD’s Turrell on that early summer day 40 years ago, it very well may have been the last adventure on the water for Jim and Rosa Stowe.