ALBERT LEA, MN – An elderly man put his pickup truck into Albert Lea’s Fountain Lake and was saved by good samaritans.
On September 20, 2023 at approximately 9:49AM, ALPD officers were dispatched to a traffic crash on Harriet Lane. Initial information was that the vehicle involved in the crash was in Fountain Lake.
Upon arrival, officers observed a pick-up truck sinking approximately thirty feet off the shore. Two good Samaritans were in the area on a boat and heard the crash. One of the parties entered the lake and was able to remove the driver out of the pick-up truck and bring him to shore. The driver, 85-year-old Dwight Martin Weise of Blue Earth, Minnesota, was uninjured and checked out by Mayo Ambulance paramedics on scene.
ALPD and Albert Lea Fire Rescue personnel remained on scene until the pick-up truck was removed from the lake.
It is believed that Weise was traveling west on Harriet Lane, struck a retaining wall of a private residence, and entered the lake. Harriet Lane is small residential road that contains no outlets to other roads. The cause of the crash is unknown at this time.
