Four rescued from truck on Highway 91

ZALMA, Mo. -- Rescue teams from Zalma, Leopold and a couple of good Samaritans pulled a woman and three children from a pickup truck submerged in water Tuesday afternoon on Highway 91 near Zalma.

Bollinger County Sheriff Leo McElrath said that Karen S. Clay, 45, of Advance, Mo., drove around a barrier in Highway 91 in a 1998 Chevrolet extended-cab pickup. She drove into the water on the road and her truck was swept away. With her were three daughters of her son's fianc?e.

Highway 91 at Zalma has been closed for several days because of flooding, according to the Missouri Department of Transportation.

"The water was washed up over the road and the truck was completely submerged," McElrath said. "You could just barely see the top of it."

Three volunteers from the Zalma Fire and Rescue Department set out in a boat to rescue the woman and children, and ended up having to be rescued themselves.

"I told them they only needed two people in the boat; there was too much weight in the boat," McElrath said.

After taking on the four drenched victims, the boat capsized. Shane Garner and Adam Johnson, two local men who had come to the area with their own boat to help, then rowed over to the capsized boat, rescued Clay and the children, and then went back for the three original rescuers.

No one was injured. McElrath said the three girls were treated at the scene by personnel from the Bollinger County Ambulance Service and released to their parents. Charges are pending against Clay.