Two dead in crash off Flathead River cliff
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IRVINE FLATS — Two men are dead after the car they were riding in plunged off a 25-foot cliff into the Flathead River early Saturday morning.
Joshua Jerome Clairmont, a 23-year-old Missoula resident, and 20-year-old Drew Austin Taylor, also of Missoula, died of apparent drowning, Lake County Undersheriff Jay Doyle said. Driver Shane Steffans, 24, of Missoula, was hospitalized in stable condition Monday at Kalispell Regional Medical Center.
According to the Montana Highway Patrol dispatch center, the crash happened around 2 or 3 a.m. Saturday on Buffalo Bridge Lane, a washed-out dirt road along the river near Irvine Flats Road. It appeared that the driver was speeding, did not apply brakes and drove off a 25 to 30-foot cliff, landing the yellow Ford Escape upside down in the river. It was nearly 12 hours later when the lone survivor, Steffans, was able to contact emergency services.
Around 1 p.m. Saturday afternoon, Lake County dispatch received a 911 call from a man whose car was parked near the area of the crash off of Buffalo Bridge Lane. The man said he’d been approached by someone (Steffans) who told him he’d crashed his vehicle off the cliff. According to a Lake County Sheriff’s Office news release, the call center was able to pinpoint the caller’s location, and rescuers including Tribal Fish and Game, Polson Fire Department, Lake County Search and Rescue, Polson ambulance, ALERT helicopter, Lake County Sheriff's Office, Montana Highway Patrol and Tribal Police responded to the scene.
Clairmont and Taylor were pronounced dead at the scene, and Steffans was taken by helicopter to the hospital in Kalispell.
Neither passenger was wearing a seatbelt at the time of the crash, and alcohol use is still under investigation, according to MHP dispatch.
