Ripon Woman Saved From Freezing Creek
27 January 2020 News
(Ripon Police Department photo)
A veteran Ripon police officer is being credited with saving the life of a 21-year-old Ripon woman who’s SUV ended up upside down in the freezing waters of Silver Creek Saturday morning. Ripon Police Chief Bill Wallner says Officer Trevor Hanke was on patrol that morning in the area of West Oshkosh and North Union Streets when he noticed tire tracks going through a snowbank and down an incline toward Silver Creek. Upon further investigation he saw a vehicle upside down in the creek and a woman, Elizabeth Romo, was clinging to it in the freezing water. She had crawled out a back window as the vehicle began filling with water. Debris in the creek and the cold conditions prevented her from getting out. Officer Hanke and a bystander were able to get her out. An ambulance took Romo to Ripon Medical Center to be treated for exposure and she made a full recovery. Chief Wallner says no one else had noticed the tire tracks or SUV in the creek. “She indicated to the officer she had been down there for anywhere between 15 minutes to a half hour and nobody had noticed her up until the point that Officer Hanke had noticed the tracks.” Romo had lost control on the snow-covered roads while trying to negotiate a curve. Hanke has been with the Ripon Police Department nearly 30 years.
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