August 27, 2009
Polson trooper drowns in off-duty accident
Jim Blow/Valley Journal
Emergency crews responded to the Pump Canal Road spillway area last Sunday morning to recover the body of Chris Hoyt. The 41-year-old resident of Polson and trooper with the Montana Highway Patrol drowned in an off-duty accident. Hoyt drowned while saving his dog, which fell into the fast-moving canal waters.
By Jim Blow
Valley Journal
POLSON — A Montana Highway Patrol trooper lost his life in an off-duty accident Sunday morning. Christopher Lee Hoyt, 41, drowned while saving his dog after it fell into a concrete-lined segment of irrigation canal just south of Polson.
According to Lake County Sheriff Lucky Larson, a woman friend of Hoyt called 911 at 11:13 a.m. on Sunday, Aug. 23, to report the accident. Sheriff's deputies, Polson ambulance and Polson Fire Department crews responded to the scene. Hoyt's body was recovered and transported to St. Joseph Hospital in Polson, where he was pronounced dead.
The canal feeds irrigation water to agricultural fields south of Polson. The dirt access road, known as Pump Canal Road, runs from Skyline Drive to Kerr Dam Road. On Sunday morning Hoyt, his friend and the dog were taking a walk along the road, a popular recreation area for walkers and joggers.
Apparently the dog fell into canal near the spillway area, where two lined east-west canal segments merge and continue south. The concrete banks rise several feet higher there and provide little for someone in the water to grab hold of. Hoyt got his dog, Emra, out of the canal but he was swept under by the rapid current.
Hoyt was a Polson High School graduate and a lifelong resident of the Mission Valley. Hoyt's former MHP sergeant Mike Kent, who is now a pastor in Harlowton, recalled Hoyt as a consummate professional and close friend.
"I thoroughly enjoyed working with him ... He had an incredible work ethic, loved his family, loved his job and loved living in the Flathead," Kent said. Kent was Hoyt's supervisor his first year on the job and he was impressive from the start.
"He took constructive criticism well and he wanted to everything so well. He was a dot the 'I' and cross the 'T' kind of s guy," Kent explained, chuckling when he recalled how Hoyt and short stories never seemed to go together. "We'd pull up alongside each other in a parking lot somewhere and he'd start off saying 'Let me give you the short version.' But I don't think Chris knew what 'short version' meant."
One of the things that impressed Kent right off the bat was that Hoyt was so diligent about the job. He loved the New York Yankees baseball team and always reserved some vacation time in August to take his family to some baseball games in Seattle.
But what was equally clear was how important his family was.
"He loved his family and loved his boys," Kent noted.
Memorial services will be held Thursday, Aug. 27, at 11 a.m. at the Linderman Gymnasium, across from the courthouse in Polson. Interment will follow at Lakeview Cemetery in Polson.
In lieu of flowers, the family encourages donations to either the Mission Valley Animal Shelter, 36251 N. Reservoir Rd., Polson, MT 59860 or to the Educational Fund that has been established at 1st Citizens Bank, 213 1st St. W., Polson, MT 59860 for his three sons, Traven, Kellen and Morgen.
|
.jpg)
