Dogs drown after truck slips in PM Lake.

By Rob Alway, Editor-in-Chief.

LUDINGTON — Two dogs drowned after the vehicle they were in slid into Pere Marquette Lake about 1:45 p.m. Friday. Dave Even, captain of El-Lin Charters said he and his friends, Doug and Mary Karkas, were loading the 28-foot long Cherokee boat onto a trailer at Copeyan Park, on Ludington’s south side, when Even’s Ford F-250 slid into the water. Even said the truck was in park.

“It’s something I have done hundreds of times,” Even said as he watched Ludington Police Department Officer Tony Kuster dive into the water to assess the vehicle; Kuster is part of the Mason County emergency dive team.

“It happened so fast,” Even said, adding that he attempted to run after the truck but could not keep up with it. Doug Karkas attempted to rescue his two dogs, an English spaniel and a chocolate labrador, but again, the vehicle quickly went into the deep water just beyond the city-owned boat launch.

Ludington Police Department, Ludington Fire Department, Life EMS, the Ludington Fire and Police Harbor 1 boat, the county dive team and Quinn’s Tires and Tows were called to the scene.

A tow truck from Quinn’s was used to pull the truck out of Pere Marquette Lake. Officer Kuster dove into the water and connected the hook onto the fully submerged truck. Emergency crews extricated the deceased dogs as the vehicle came out of the water.

Personnel were on scene for about 90 minutes.