Girl Saved After Crash Into Ice Sea Navy Cpo Scurries Down 185-Foot Cliff To Make Rescue

A precipitous cliff, inky darkness and frigid water did not stop him.

Matthew Scott, a Navy chief petty officer, used his military training and nerves to rescue 15-year-old Lesli Lancaster after her small truck plunged over a 185-foot cliff into the icy waters of Deception Pass late Thursday night.

Scott, 31, is stationed in Bremerton on the carrier USS Carl Vinson. He was driving south on Washington 20 from Mount Vernon to the Whidbey Island Naval Air Station around 11 p.m. when he was hailed by three people standing by the side of the road.

One of them was Starrena Cheatwood, 15, who has been riding in the pickup with Lancaster but managed to jump out before it went over the cliff. Scott sent her to a nearby grocery store to call 911.

Holding a flashlight in his mouth, Scott found a section of the embankment that was covered with trees and began sliding down on his feet and behind, using branches and roots for support.

When he reached the bottom, Scott located Lancaster in the water - about 50 yards away - with his flashlight. He hesitated briefly before wading towards the injured girl who was barely conscious.

By the time Scott had brought the teen to shore, another passerby, Chad Heiserman, of Oak Harbor, had come down to shore.

The two men were looking for pieces of driftwood to provide a level surface to stabilize the girl when a Coast Guard boat came to shore and medical crews took her aboard.

Lancaster was treated at Island Hospital in Anacortes and later transferred to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle where she was listed in satisfactory condition Saturday with multiple fractures in her lower back, left forearm and right toe. In addition, her right foot had been dislocated.

Washington State Patrol troopers said the accident apparently occurred when Lancaster tried to make a U-turn, lost control of the vehicle and crashed through a wooden guardrail. They said alcohol may have been involved.