Man’s 2016 Chevy pickup will stay in Mississippi River this week

River’s current too great to safely remove vehicle 

Earl Steele’s 2016 Chevy Colorado will stay in the Mississippi for another week, at least. 

Steele apparently went on a drunken joy ride through La Crosse’s Houska Park late Sunday night in his brand new crew cab and dropped that fancy new ride into the slough that runs right to the east of Houska.  

Steele, 45, got out OK and so did his passenger, but the truck didn’t fare so well, sinking under the water and drifting downstream a little. 

All police could see were it’s taillights around 11 p.m. Sunday.

The fire department says it’ll wait until next week to see whether the water level drops in the slough and the current slows down, so that retrieval of the truck won’t be as dangerous.  

Steele, meanwhile, has been charged with drunk driving, among other things.

Originally, it was thought that Steele hit the curb and went airborne into the river – clearing the rocks, that did not looked disturbed – near the dog park entrance around 90 mph. The passenger said the last thing he remembered, before swimming out the truck’s window was Steele saying, “This thing really opens up … Got it up to 90 man.”

But an OnStar rep., who first made the call to authorities, said the truck was going 28 mph before the airbags went – likely from hitting the water.