Witness recalls car driving onto ice
A Blackfoot woman drove off the road and onto the ice of the Snake River is behind bars Sunday night. Courtney Silzly, 26, has been released from the hospital and booked into the Bingham County Jail on charges of driving under the influence.
“My son turned around and said, ‘Mom! There’s tracks going on to the river, and there’s a car on the river,” said witness Shawna Reynolds.
“When I saw the tracks, I was like, ‘There’s a car out there! What the,'” said Reynolds’ son, Ryan.
Around 5 p.m. Saturday night, Bingham County Sheriff’s Office were dispatched to the Snake River, where a car had driven about 20 yards onto the ice.
“The other couple quoted a 100 miles per hour around the bend and just drove straight off the road, onto the river,” Reynolds said.
“None of us were brave enough to go out there. I don’t know, stupid enough to go out there. There was water coming up between her tracks and I don’t know 30 to 40 yards in front of her car there was an opening in the ice. The river wasn’t even frozen over at that point.”
The 911 call was made, and Silzly made a break for it.
“As soon as the sirens came on she bolted out the passenger side,” Reynolds said.
Silzly’s reaction wasn’t what Reynolds expected.
“She just ran straight across the river to a sand bar that was in the middle of the river,” said Reynolds. “So we were thinking, ‘We’re here! Come this way! come back over this way!””
Then Silzly did her best to hide from authorities.
“She wedged herself into some weeds because there wasn’t much room on that sand bar,” said Reynolds. “By the time the cops got there we said, ‘She’s right there.'”
Silzly was taken to the hospital and later booked on suspicion of DUI.
“First it was scary and we were just like, ‘Oh shoot, you know, how do we help these people? And what do we do?'” Reynolds said. “Then it became comical as we saw this lady bolt from her suburban and run the opposite way across the river and try to wedge herself in. We were kind of like, ‘Hey, there’s only one set of tracks, nobody has been crossing the river lately, it’s not really going to be too hard to find you.'”
While this is still under investigation, if Silzly is charged with evading a police officer she could be charged with a misdemeanor and could face up to one year in the county jail.
