Truck Driver Missing In River Dump Truck Snaps Planks, Tips Into Swift Clark Fork

A Montana man was killed, his body swept away by the raging Clark Fork River, after his dump truck crashed through an old wood-planked bridge on Derr Island, authorities said.

Authorities were searching the riverbanks late Wednesday hoping to find the body of Brandon Short, 39, of Heron, Mont. He was hauling loads of rock to the island, which sits at the mouth of Clark Fork River about 30 miles east of Sandpoint. Short was trying to shore up a bank near one of the seven homes on the island.

He drove the loaded truck too close to one side of the bridge, snapping some of the wood planks, said Bonner County Sheriff Chip Roos. The truck ripped through the timbers, tipped over one side of the bridge and splashed into the rushing, flooded river.

“The cab of the truck was busted up pretty bad and he wasn’t in it when we got a look at it,” said John Black, a scuba diver and Bonner County sheriff’s deputy. “It looks like he was washed down the river somewhere.”

Although Short’s body has not been found, he is presumed dead.

The accident was reported about 9:30 a.m. by a passer-by who saw the hole in the bridge decking that leads to the privately owned island.

The dump truck was partially crushed after being pinned against the bridge pilings by the current. It was also completely under water, except for the left front wheel.

When authorities arrived they didn’t know if Short was still in the truck, and the current was too swift to put a diver in the water.

“It was just too dangerous,” Black said. “The only thing we could do was get a boat out there and hook a cable onto the truck.”

Local resident Jim White used a bulldozer and backhoe and a winch to get the truck underneath the bridge and out of the heavy current.

Friends and relatives of Short stood near the gaping hole in the bridge, holding each other as a bulldozer slowly tugged the truck to shore. It took crews six hours to get the truck to a bank where divers could search the cab for Short.

“That current was awesome and we didn’t expect him to be inside,” Roos said.

Just in case, members of the Bonner County Search and Rescue team were posted on a nearby bridge watching for Short while the truck was reeled in. They only saw debris from the mangled truck and Short’s cooler float past.

Over the next few days search and rescue teams will comb sloughs and brush along the river in hope of recovering Short’s body.

“It’s sad and it’s harder on the family when you can’t recover the body right away and give them some closure,” Roos said.

Short was married and leaves two children, ages 9 and 6. He lived in Heron about two years after moving from California. He was driving truck for J.F. Overman, a Heron hauling company.

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