Motorist sees truck fall from skyward launch, races down to icy Crow River and rescues pinned driver

One moment, Christopher Kirk was driving his pickup on a west metro highway. The next, he saw a box truck launch skyward before his eyes and crash into the icy Crow River below.

Kirk did not hesitate. "I saw someone who was on the border or the edge of dying," he said Tuesday, putting aside worries of his own well-being and thinking: "I'm just gonna help get this guy out."

Quickly, he was waist deep in frigid water using all his might to pull the truck's driver free, as others stopped their vehicles upon witnessing the crash and tried to help.

"His left shoulder and head were in the water," the 46-year-old Kirk said, recalling that he felt the Crow's current move about him Monday afternoon as he worked to free the man from behind the wheel.

State Patrol Lt. Jill Frankfurth said the truck's driver, 25-year-old James Nahl of Fridley, was heading north on Hwy. 101 in Rogers about 3:15 p.m. when he "struck the right guardrail and sign, veered to the left, striking the left guardrail and launching down into the river."

Kirk was the first of several vehicle occupants who parked on the shoulders and clambered down toward the river in an effort to help Nahl, whose truck landed on its wheels with the cab only partly above the surface and the box portion obliterated.

Kirk, of Otsego, said he was heading to Elk River for work when he saw the truck "launch straight up into the air" and over the railing. He called 911, then "did a baseball slide on the snow and everything. Running down there would have been kind of dumb."

He arrived to see Nahl pinned in the cab with his seat belt still on. Kirk said Nahl was "facing to the right to get his mouth out of the water."

The National Weather Service said the air temperature was 0 at that time in western Hennepin County.

With all the strength Kirk could muster, combined with what Nahl could summon, "we were able to get him onto the flatbed" behind the cab, now exposed with the box gone from the impact.

"I asked him if he was OK," Kirk said. After getting an affirmative response, Kirk recalled saying, " 'Let's get the hell out of here.' "

As the two started their ascent, several others who had made their way down helped Kirk get Nahl back to the highway's edge. From there, he was taken to a nearby hospital for treatment of what the highway patrol described as minor injuries.

A trooper asked Kirk to stay at the scene, and he responded with one request.

"I said that's fine, but I'm going to wait in my truck. I turned up the butt warmers and turned up the heat."

Frankfurth described Kirk matter of factly as "a good Samaritan [who] assisted the male driver out of the vehicle."

When Kirk told his wife what happened she said he deserved an award for being a hero and "an award for being an idiot. ... I'm not a great swimmer," he said.