GALESBURG — An elderly man and his dog who took a trip on icy Lake Storey were saved from the frigid water late Wednesday afternoon.

Galesburg police and fire along with Galesburg Hospitals Ambulance Service responded to the south ramp of Lake Storey at about 4:33 p.m. Wednesday for a truck that had gone through the icy top of Lake Storey.

Evan Miller, 54, Galesburg, was at Lake Storey Pavilion for a meeting about chemicals that are used to spray on crops, which is what Miller does for an area farmer.

He "was driving home and had seen the pickup in the water and the guy out of the pickup," Miller said.

So he and four or five other people got items to help the man out.

"Someone had some rope and someone had some cardboard and we got him out of there ... drug him up onto solid ground (while he was on cardboard) and I had a blanket in my pickup and so then when we got him drug up on the ground. That was when the fire and rescue and the ambulance" got there, Miller said.

"He was coherent, but he just said he had been driving around on the ice quite a bit today."

The man and his dog were rescued and Galesburg police did not anticipate issuing any tickets to the man. By 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, the truck had been pulled out of Lake Storey.

Galesburg police Lt. James Bradford said the man told police he drove out onto the ice from the east boat ramp and was in the process of making a U-turn when his truck cracked the surface about 20 feet from the ramp pavement.

Miller said he has been a "good Samaritan" before as a commercial truck driver arriving first at the scene of vehicle accidents, for example.

"You save somebody's life and maybe they have children or grandchildren or something like that and you think of your own children and grandchildren and you'd want someone to rescue you to help you see them again," he said.

"I'd want someone to do the same. You don't really think about it. You just do what you try to do to save somebody and worry about whatever happens afterward."

Robert Connelly: (309) 343-7181, ext. 266; rconnelly@register-mail.com; @RConnelly_