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Rafters rescue driver from car pinned in Arkansas River

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Created on Wednesday, 13 July 2011 18:35

Written by Dena Rosenberry

By Tracy Harmon,  The Pueblo Chieftain

CANON CITY -- When a car plunged into the swift-moving water of the Arkansas River about 2:20 p.m. Sunday, a group of raft guides came to the rescue.

Royal Gorge Rafting guide Jeremiah Peck, 25, said he and a group of guides were on a bus with passengers heading out to start a raft trip when one of the guides thought he saw an oar in the river.  As they approached the object, it looked to be an upside-down raft, and four or five people were standing on the side of the road waving at the bus to stop near Three Forks Rapid west of Canon City.

Peck and fellow raft guides Eric Loyer, Ram Salami, Tye Dudley and Rob Emmerson learned the object in the river was an upside-down car.  The first two witnesses on the scene had pulled a passenger to safety and had returned to the car where they were trying to hold the driver above the water.

"We got our life jackets on and ran to the river.  The driver was partially out the window but he was still stuck in the car, being held by his seat belt," Peck explained.

"He was fighting for his life, trying to hold on to the muffler," Peck said.  "We tried to use a hose from one of our pumps to help him get air -- his head was just high enough he could get air, but then his face would get covered with water."

The driver was too panicked to keep the hose in his mouth, so Peck climbed on top of the car, and holding the driver by the arms, tried in vain to tug him free.

"I jumped into the water and felt for the seat belt, took my river knife and cut the belt.  I had him in a bear hug and the other guides, including two from Raft Masters who were doing a really good job, pushed the car and I pulled him out and we swam to the shore," Peck said.

Raft Masters owner Dennis Wied said his guides Fleur Kaiser and Kara Spaulding helped with the rescue operations and another guide, Chuck Wilt, helped direct traffic.

Although the water was only waist deep, it was running at an extremely fast 4,000 cubic feet per second at the Parkdale gauge Sunday and is a chilly mid-50 degrees.  This time of year, the river has typically dropped to about 1,000 cubic feet per second, Peck said.

"In a couple of minutes hypothermia can start to set in.  We got him out of the water, checked him for injuries and got him on a short back board to stabilize his neck and back," Peck said.

An ambulance arrived a short time later.

"They probably saved their lives," said John Kreski of the Arkansas Headwaters Recreation Area office in Salida.  "After it was all said and done, they got back in the bus and went rafting."

"They deserve a lot of kudos.  Those guys were doomed if the raft guides hadn't showed up," Wied said.

"At the end of the day, we definitely had a beer," Peck said.

The guides relied on instinct and the training they receive each year.  Peck has been an emergency medical technician for six years and has been a raft guide for close to a decade.

"I just think the timing worked out.  We said we need to fix this quickly and that's what we did," Peck said.

Names of the victims were not obtained by Colorado State Patrol troopers.  The patrol officers did not write a report about the incident because the two victims were treated for minor injuries and released from the hospital the same day.