Driver remembers washed-out road

LIND — Richard Ledgerwood said he remembers it all.

It was Feb. 16 and he was on his way to work in Warden, just like every morning. “I came around the curve at 5:45 in the morning.”

Just like every morning. Except this time the road wasn’t there.

The picture that showed what happened to the road appeared on Spokane TV stations and the front pages of regional newspapers, a washout that tore out about 30 feet of road and left a hole about 15 feet deep. The Adams County Sheriff's Office used Ledgerwood's pictures to warn people about road conditions.

Richard Ledgerwood was the first person to discover it.

“The road went down underneath me.” Luckily for him it was not like those scenes in the movies where the car sails off a cliff. There was some asphalt left, and he “kind of surfed it down.”

The bottom was about 15 feet below the former roadbed, normally a dry creek bed with a culvert that was no longer dry. It was full of fast-moving water and mud, enough to drown his SUV.

“I remember everything,” he said, the ride down as the roadbed turned to mud and the car hit the water. “I remember the airbag.” The fast moving water turned the car in a half-circle. “I remember the water coming in the passenger side.”

Ledgerwood unbuckled his seatbelt; luckily the car’s electronics were still working and he could roll down the window. (He had a hammer behind the seat if he needed it, he said.) He climbed through the window, using the steering wheel as a step up – with one scary second where he slipped off.

Once out of the car he climbed on the roof, he said, and pulled a small flashlight from his pocket. “I could see the mud bank behind the rig,” the rocks on the other bank, where he could see a way to climb out of the washout.

He wasn’t that far off the bank, he said, close enough to jump, more or less. Ledgerwood stood on the spare tire, mounted on the rear of the car.

“Then I had to convince my left hand to let go (of the luggage rack).” He jumped-flopped to the bank, he said, and climbed the 15 feet up the embankment back to the road.

“I pulled my phone out of my pocket and it was exactly six o’clock,” he said.

“If it wasn’t for the airbag and (the pocket) flashlight, I wouldn’t be here.” A car was traveling eastbound, and Ledgerwood flagged down the driver.

“I told him, ‘the road’s gone,’ and he said, ‘what do you mean?’ He didn’t believe me.” Cell service was unavailable, so the other driver went home to call 911.

As dramatic as it was, Ledgerwood said he wasn’t hurt too badly, although he had to have some physical therapy on his shoulder. He tried to go back to work, but had to take some time off. The most difficult part, he said, has been remembering what happened, and what could’ve happened.

He rescued what was left of his vehicle – somebody apparently tried but failed to steal the tires – a few days later. The mud covered the entire car, and it took about three hours to dig down to it.

Richard Ledgerwood sees it as a little narrower escape than he really liked. Now “there are no bad days,” he said.

“Kind of makes me wonder what He has in store for me.”

Cheryl Schweizer can be reached via email at education@columbiabasinherald.com.