Three WSDOT Workers Awarded for Blewett Pass Rescue Last Winter

Three Washington Department of Transportation workers are being recognized for their work in rescuing a woman stranded in the snow at Blewett Pass last winter.

Aaron Byrd, Koby Todd, and Gunnar Lantz quickly pinpointed the whereabouts of Lynell McFarland, who had been trapped in her car 40 feet down an embankment for four days last November.

Firefighters then performed a dramatic rescue of 68-year-old McFarland, who spent a week recovering in the hospital before being released.

Byrd, Todd and Lantz recently received lifesaving awards in a ceremony at the Washington State Patrol's regional headquarters in Wenatchee.

At the time last November, it was DOT maintenance lead tech Byrd who told the night crew to search the area of McFarland’s last known cellphone ping.

Snowplow crew members Todd and Lantz then followed Byrd's instructions and quickly found McFarland’s car 40 feet down an embankment.

The dramatic rescue of MacFarland after she survived for four days in extreme weather conditions became a widely covered news story over the winter.