Truck driver pulls man from sinking car

DUPONT — Truck driver John Neumeier was doing his job Monday night, loading a milk truck at the Van Ham dairy east of Dupont. He was on top of the tank, sealing it, when he heard a crash and a splash.“I was up on my truck, sealing the lid up when I heard this thump, thump, bang. And I looked up. I seen this car coming across the water. It made it about all the way across then it sank,” Neumeier said.The dairy has a pond just off the road, and a car drove into it at about 9:30 p.m. Monday, according to the Putnam County Sheriff's Office. The driver, Earl Kuhlman, 63, of Fort Jennings, was transported to Putnam County Ambulatory Care in Glandorf and was in stable condition there late Monday.Neumeier, 58, of Maria Stein, didn't hesitate to help. He called 9-1-1 and ran over to the pond and yelled to the driver, who appeared to be disoriented. Workers at the dairy also tried to shout in Spanish, in case the man didn't speak English, Neumeier said.With the car sinking, Neumeier ran back to his truck and retrieved a big wrench, which he used to break out the car's window to try to get Kuhlman out of the car. It was in about 8 feet of water.“I could see him moving around in there. I could see the light of his cellphone,” Neumeier said. “I got the window knocked out and the glass away from the opening as much as I could. The car was under water.”As Neumeier helped Kuhlman from the car, he said, Kuhlman had called his wife on his cellphone and said he missed the jog in the road and came straight onto the dairy's property.“He said he just missed the curve,” Neumeier said. “He took a heck of a ride.”Neumeier said Kuhlman was lucky. The truck driver isn't normally at the dairy until later at night.The car remained submerged late Monday. Putnam County's dive team arrived around 11 p.m. to retrieve it.Putnam County Sheriff's Office and Continental Fire Department responded to the scene.