POINT TOWNSHIP—Tyler Martin and Kody Leisenring were just “doing their jobs and got lucky,” says Tyler Martin the day after fishing a women out of the Susquehanna River, “It just happen to be a lucky instance I think. We were doing our job, usually we would only send one truck but both of our crews happen to head up that way, and then we just headed up (Route) 11 and just happen to get lucky that we happen to see her maybe only about 20 feet off the bank and we got a gap in the trees there and we happen to see her.”
Point Township Police Chief Josh VanKirk said the woman parked her car just off the Barry King Bridge on the Union/Snyder County side of the river, then walked onto the bridge, and jumped in. He said the river is high and fast, and the woman was carried nearly a mile downstream.
Martin said she didn’t have much longer before she reached real trouble, “She was definitely in some peril very quickly. When we were on the Vets Bridge, we could see tons of trees and debris floating, and that was also a concern for us putting boats in the water. That was why we acted as quickly as we did, we had the chance to just throw a rope there instead of putting other people in danger. The water was very cold. We had gotten our feet wet and we were getting kind of cold from that little bit there.”
According to Martin; he, Kody Leisenring, his partner and George Geise, Tuckahoe Assistant Chief are credited with pulling the woman from the water. The woman had suffered from exposure to the cold water, and was taken to Geisinger Medical Center. Police say no name is being disclosed at this time. (Christopher Elio)