Water Hazard While She Made Dash, Her New Car And Mother, 88, Made Splash

Joyce Backman insists she put her new car in park. Not reverse.

But shortly after she stepped out of the big blue Buick Thursday she could do little more than watch as the car - seemingly on its own - started backing toward a steep embankment and the lake below.

To make matters worse, her 88-year-old mother sat in the passenger seat.

As though intent on taking a bath, the car cruised 275 feet, swerved around three trees, then crashed into Avondale Lake.

“I just could not believe it,” Backman said Thursday. “I knew she couldn’t swim and she was locked in that car.”

Backman, 65, of Hayden, said she bought the car two weeks ago and is still getting used to it.

A member of the Avondale Country Club, she had stopped by the lakeside golf course Thursday morning to drop off her dues. Afterward, she planned to take her mother, Blanche Dryer, to have her hair done.

Backman says she put the car in park and left it running in the clubhouse parking lot. She left her mother in the car, planning only to run in and drop off a check.

But as she walked toward the clubhouse, she noticed out of the corner of her eye that the car had started moving.

“I ran after it and tried to open the door and I couldn’t get the door open,” Backman said. She said the doors automatically lock when the vehicle is put in gear.

The car continued to speed up, making a crash course for a tree.

“That would have been wonderful,” Backman said. “But it was just like it was on a radar. It turned and missed that tree, then it turned and missed another one and then there was one by the lake and it turned and missed that one, too.”

The car burst through some undergrowth, lurched down the embankment and slid into several feet of water. The icy lake filled the car around Dryer’s lap.

Despite the wild ride, emergency workers and golf course employees were able to pull Dryer from the cold water and lily pads unharmed.

The gear shift was in reverse when a tow truck pulled the car from the lake later in the morning. Backman believes the gear shift malfunctioned, popping from park into reverse when she shut the door. She says she sat in the car for several minutes without it moving before she left her mother.

Kootenai County sheriff’s Deputy Bob Gomez is skeptical. He suspects Backman accidentally put the car in reverse because she isn’t used to it.

Either way, no one will be cited and the car suffered only minor damage.

Most importantly, Dryer came out of the ordeal no worse for wear.

Dryer told Gomez: “That was a hell of a ride. And I didn’t like it.”

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