'Successful Rescue Rather Than a Recovery'

A Montana Highway Patrol trooper braved near-freezing water and strong currents to rescue a woman whose vehicle was upside down in the Yellowstone River, KCCI reports. Trooper Connor Wager was among the first responders to a rollover crash Thursday near the town of Emigrant. The front end of the vehicle was already submerged in the icy water and the driver was trapped. “Wager tethered himself with a rope and entered the water making his way through the fast-moving current to the overturned vehicle. The strong current prevented the rear hatch from opening, so he broke through the rear window with a rescue tool and pulled the woman out of the car,” the Montana Highway Patrol said on Twitter (where you can see photos of the crash).

Park County sheriff’s deputies, who were holding the rope, helped Wager and the driver make it back to shore safely, according to reports. Emergency medics treated the woman at the scene, per KRTV, and Wager was treated for minor injuries at a hospital and later released. “It was thanks to some really quick and heroic work by our deputies, the Montana Highway Patrol, and the volunteer from Paradise Valley Fire that this was a successful rescue rather than a recovery,” Park County Sheriff Brad Bichler said, the Billings Gazette reports. Authorities said the cause of the crash was being investigated. (More uplifting news stories.)