A 36-year-old woman drove a pickup into the outdoor pool of a Gillette, Wyoming, hotel Friday evening, then admitted to consuming both prescription drugs and alcohol, local police say.
Spectators chuckled and voiced awe, saying things like, “Hey this is getting a wash,” and, “That’s a designated parking spot,” according to a YouTube video of the incident posted by Razor City Observers and sent Monday to Cowboy State Daily.
The woman whom the Gillette Police Department declined to identify by name drove a 2011 Dodge Ram truck east through the parking lot at the National 9 Hotel on Highway 14/16, then crashed into the hotel pool, Brent Wasson, Gillette Police Department Deputy Chief, told Cowboy State Daily on Monday.
The woman wasn’t hurt, but showed signs of impairment and was arrested for DUI, Wasson added.
“She was unable to explain how the crash occurred,” he said.
In the hourlong video of the aftermath, while a wrecker crew was pulling the truck out of the pool, some of the contents from the truck’s cab floated out through open windows into the pool. Among the items was an empty liquor bottle.
L.D. Williams manages the National 9 and said that hasn’t happened before.
“I think this is gonna be something new for Gillette,” he said with a chuckle.
To his knowledge, no one was injured, but hotel personnel are now draining the pool to check the concrete for damage, he said.
Williams said he’s unsure how other components are doing, like the pool pump and filter, but the fence on the pool’s front end is destroyed.
“Fortunate enough the pool area and all around was empty,” Williams said.
A wrecker pulls a large Dodge Ram truck out of the outdoor pool at the National 9 motel in Gillette. (Courtesy Razor City Observers via YouTube) 
A woman is detained after the truck she was driving went into the pool at the National 9 motel in Gillette. (Courtesy Razor City Observers via YouTube)
Lift It Up, Haul It Back
Bystanders in the video taken after the incident puzzle over how responders could tow it out.
“They’re gonna have a hard time getting it out of there because the bumper is in the pool,” says one bystander in the video. “So, they’re gonna have to park over it, lift it up, haul it back and then drop the bed.”
One bystander who attests in the video to having witnessed the incident says the woman was driving about 20 mph and “didn’t even hit the brakes.” He also explains that she got out before the truck was submerged.
The video shows police speaking to a woman in a pink-hued shirt and blue pants, then performing field sobriety tests. It also tracks the arrival of a tow truck on scene. The tow truck backs up to the truck, whose hood is submerged but whose rear bed and roof remain above water, in the video.
The person recording circles around the grumbling tow truck to the right side of the half-submerged Ram, which is still bubbling under the water, the video shows.
By this time, the woman is in handcuffs and being placed in a police vehicle, the video shows.
The video circles back to the truck and zooms in on a bottle of Smirnoff, along with other items floating on the water. By then the tow truck has pulled the truck directly vertical, exposing its back two tires, in the footage.
Several minutes later, the footage shows a sling around the front of the truck just under its front wheels, pulling its nose out of the water while a metal arm braces against the back just between the two rear wheels.
The footage shows the sling pull the truck level and a gush of water rains from the outer, lower sides.
“That was killer work, man,” says the man filming the video. He and others make jokes about the truck’s potential sale advertisements, such as “used truck, slight water damage” and “recently cleaned.”
“She tried putting it in reverse while it was in, instead of shutting it off,” says a bystander in the video.
Contact Clair McFarland at clair@cowboystatedaily.com
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
