Eugene Bridge rescued from Dry Creek crash

Emergency volunteers from Farmington, Garfield and Steptoe eased Eugene Bridge of Garfield out of his car after it landed in Dry Creek along the Dry Creek Road.

Bridge, 85, was driving eastbound toward Garfield Monday at 5:13 p.m.

when the car veered across the road and went into the creek channel.

He told the first motorists to arrive at the scene that he passed out from a diabetic episode before driving into the creek east of the Cronk Road intersection.

His 1997 Chevrolet Lumina came to a halt on its wheels in the creek bed.

Water in the creek channel topped the front tires of Bridge’s car.

Volunteers pulled Bridge through the driver’s door onto a backboard and slid him up the north bank.

They then loaded him into a Garfield Ambulance at the rock quarry on the north side of the road and took him to Whitman Hospital.

Bridge had sustained cuts to his hands in the accident.

Bridge retired last August, after working as a barber in Garfield for the previous 58 years.