Wiscasset’s police and fire departments responded Thursday afternoon, July 27 when a vehicle rolled into Back River, Wiscasset Police Sgt. Perry Hatch said. No one was in Zachari Dalton’s 2003 Tacoma truck and no one was hurt recovering the fully submerged vehicle, Hatch said in a phone interview the next morning.

Hatch said Dalton, 36, had been near the river to go digging. Dalton went to speak with someone and saw his truck roll into the water, Hatch said.

With a boat brought from Bath and members coming from Portland, a Sea Tow Portland Midcoast Sebago team then worked about three hours, including during the afternoon’s thunderstorm he said had rain and lightning, to get the vehicle out of the water and to a tow truck, said Sea Tow’s salvage master on the call, Chris Davis. In a phone interview Friday, Davis explained, “environmental protection is critical, so we wanted to make sure that we got that truck out of there. A truck doesn’t pose a huge environmental impact, but we’ve got to protect that waterway, so getting that truck out of there quickly was important.”

He said fortunately nothing came out of the truck that would have affected the river negatively. 

Davis said Blagden’s Garage of Wiscasset did a great job towing the vehicle after Sea Tow got it to a ramp. “And all honor to the police department and fire department. Everyone that was there did a really great job, an excellent team effort.” Brandon Wilkins captained the boat and the diver was Jim Buxton, Davis said.

Besides the storm, another challenge was the vehicle was upside down. Davis said that happens sometimes when a vehicle goes in the water.

Blagden’s Garage owner Bob Blagden, interviewed separately, said “Once (Sea Tow) got it on the ramp, I backed down the ramp and hooked it on, so I didn’t do much, really. It was kind of a routine tow.”