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Truck, Trailer & Boat Pulled From American River

RANCHO CORDOVA (CBS13) - It was a day of boating on the American River that did not go as planned.

One boat owner ended up needing a dive team to save not only his capsized boat, but his attached pick up truck that also sunk to the river bottom.

The unexpected  underwater off-roading led to a massive effort to get the truck back on land.

Dive teams, tow operators, and Park Rangers were all on hand as the truck was finally pulled to the surface after being submerged for two days near the Sunrise Boulevard boat launch on the American River.

Seaweed draped the side view mirrors when it finally made it to the surface.

The massive effort to get the truck back on land was spearheaded by Sacramento's volunteer DART team, which also shared underwater video of their work, attaching cables to the pickup.

The clear American River water, allowed divers  to see the tough task ahead of them.

The truck owner, watching the recovery from the shore, did not want to explain on camera how this happened to his truck, but told CBS13's Steve Large the strong current of the river, swept his boat downstream and pulled the truck in with it, before he detached it.

DART chief of operations John Mohamed is  one of the divers who worked the operation.

"First of all if your launching a boat, leave someone in the driver's seat, that can control the vehicle," Mohamed said. "That would be the main thing."

The submerged pick-up did attract lots of attention on the American River, including from Karl Bly, who runs an "American River Lost and Found" Facebook page.

"I just wonder what the fish are thinking," Bly said. "You see those fishing boats chasing them, now there's one in their domain."

Is a bad day fishing, always better then a good day at work?

Not if you're the owner of this truck.

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