Pickup truck rolls into Fox River in Yorkville

YORKVILLE – A pickup truck rolled into the middle of the Fox River in Yorkville Friday morning, after the driver had exited the vehicle and forgot to put it into park, according to police.

It happened at about 8:40 a.m. when a 43-year-old Oswego man drove his 2020 Ford F-150 onto the boat launch next to the Yorkville Parks and Recreation building along West Hydraulic Avenue, just west of the downtown Route 47 bridge.

The man told Yorkville police later that he noticed a garbage can and decided to get rid of some trash in the bed of his pickup.

“He jumped out of the vehicle but never put it into park,” Yorkville police Commander Garrett Carlyle said.

Moments later, the man realized his truck was heading straight into the river and there was nothing he could do to stop it.

With the engine still running, the pickup came to a halt in the middle of the river in about three feet of water, perhaps 100 feet or so from the south bank where it had entered.

Firefighters from the Bristol-Kendall Fire Protection District responded to the scene. One of the firefighters entered the vehicle and backed it up out of the river and back onto the boat launch.

Carlyle said there was no damage to the pickup and that water did not get into the passenger compartment of the vehicle.