A new rescue-equipped Sherp amphibious off-road vehicle is now part of the Ottawa County (Ohio) Sheriff's Office's special equipment lineup.

“One nice thing about it is we can drive it across the ice. If there’s an ice floe, we can fall through and then drive back up on the ice and rescue people,” Sheriff Stephen Levorchick said. “It will allow us to respond to incidents in a much more diverse environment. It opens our ability to respond in environments that we were not able to in the past, which includes marshland, for duck hunters, and on the ice.”

He said the Sherp can travel in any environment, including ones that would exclude traditional marine propeller use, such as a boat, and heavy-wheeled vehicles, such as fire trucks and EMS vehicles that would get stuck in marsh mud, the News Messenger reports.

The new Sherp vehicle was purchased with a Homeland Security grant of $210,000, which also covers the truck and trailer needed to tow the vehicle.

As part of the grant, several officers are being trained to drive and perform unique maintenance and operation duties.

On dry land the vehicle travels at a maximum speed of 25 mph, but in open water it can still move at 4 mph.