HAYDEN LAKE, Idaho. – A quiet morning of fishing on Hayden Lake turned into a rescue mission for Fisher DePriest, 14, after he witnessed a mother and son fall more than 200 feet down an embankment on Sunday.
“I didn’t even know it was real, I was just like, ‘oh, am I hallucinating,’” DePriest said.
Summer on the lake is usually calm, peaceful, full of happy memories; but on Sunday August 4, an ordinary day of fishing turned into anything but ordinary, scary even, for DePriest. In a matter of hours, he became the “Hayden Lake Hero.”
“I don’t even know how they survived, I have no idea,” the teenager said.
While DePriest was fishing, a mother and son were driving Hayden Lake Road, curvy, two-laned, and narrow. When something, unconfirmed what, sent them flying off the road to a nearly 200-foot drop. They landed just above the water, and DePriest, on his boat, saw everything.
“They came flying down and they hit that tree right there,” DePriest said, while pointing out toward shore from the lake.
Remnants of the family’s car remain scattered through the terrain.
“First thought, I thought they weren’t alive and then I was like, ‘oh if they’re alive, they’re probably really badly injured,’” DePriest said.
But officials reported no injuries between the mom and son. This just goes to show how important it is to wear your seatbelt. However, the two were stuck inside, unable to break free from their car, pushed up against rocks, trees, and the water.
“I’m pretty sure they thought they were pretty much done there, because that area is like a blind spot where nobody is going to be able to see them,” DePriest said.
But they did not go unseen, DePriest was there; the 14-year-old called 911 and boated over to the mom and son. He climbed up slippery rocks and pulled out a knife to cut through the vehicle’s sunroof.
“We cut this whole in the top and peeled away the glass,” DePriest said.
The teen checked if the mom and son were okay, all while on the phone with dispatch to relay what he heard, what he saw, to the professionals. The Kootenai County Sheriff’s Office (KCSO) and the Northern Lakes Fire Department (NLFD) were on the way.
Matt Legg, a captain and paramedic with NLFD, was amazed by DePriest’s quick thinking.
“With his great information on the way out here and able to let us know what was going on, we had the world coming to us for help and we were able to return units back in service to be able to cover more calls in our district,” Legg said.
Before police and medics arrived, DePriest was able to pull the mom and son to safety and get them on his boat.
“Before we got there, he was able to process the situation and remove the two patients from the vehicle on his own with no guidance, so that was pretty impressive,” Legg said.
Impressive to say the least, a 14-year-old spending his summer day saving a mother and son. And to think, DePriest didn’t even plan on fishing that morning.
“I was put there, that was just the way it was,” he said. “The chances of me going that day, at that time, and that happening… If I would’ve showed up five minutes later after that happened because it was hidden behind this bush, I would’ve never known there was a car there.”
The mother and son left the scene with no injuries – they weren’t even transferred to a hospital.
