Posted on 06/14/2010 6:33:54 AM PDT by bjorn14
Clear Creek sheriff's deputies on Thursday arrested a rafting guide for swimming to a stranded young rafter who had tumbled from his boat on Clear Creek.
Ryan Daniel Snodgrass, a 28-year-old guide with Arkansas Valley Adventures rafting company, was charged with "obstructing government operations," said Clear Creek Sheriff Don Krueger.
"He was told not to go in the water, and he jumped in and swam over to the victim and jeopardized the rescue operation," said Krueger, noting that his office was deciding whether to file similar charges against another guide who was at the scene just downstream of Kermitts Roadhouse on U.S. 6.
Duke Bradford, owner of Arkansas Valley Adventures, said Snodgrass did the right thing by contacting the 13-year-old Texas girl immediately and not waiting for the county's search and rescue team to assemble ropes, rafts and rescuers.
"When you have someone in sight who has taken a long swim, you need to make contact immediately," said Bradford, a 15-year rafting guide and ski patroller from Summit County. "This is just silly. Ryan Snodgrass acted entirely appropriately. These guys came to the scene late and there was a rescue in progress. They came in and took over an existing rescue. To leave a patient on the side of a river while you get your gear out of the car and set up a rescue system you read about in a book is simply not good policy."
Snodgrass' raft flipped on the runoff-swelled Clear Creek around noon Thursday and the girl swam from the raft. Krueger said the girl was missing for 30 to 45 minutes while Snodgrass searched for her. He said she swam a half mile from the spot where the raft capsized.
Since it had been so long, Krueger said, it was no longer the rafting company's rescue.
"They should involve themselves up to a point. They lost contact. Whether they want to say they were trying to rescue their customer, when they had lost visual contact and had no idea where their customer has been for 30 to 45 minutes, then it becomes our issue."
Bradford said he would expect his guides to do the same thing again. His guides are professionals, he said, trained and certified in swiftwater rescue.
"To jump into water and navigate a river in a swiftwater rescue is common. You get into the river and swim. You have to do it," Branford said. "The fact these guys don't understand that is disturbing. Making contact immediately with your victim is essential. It's not about who is in charge. It's about the safety of a 13-year-old girl. You are going to do everything in your power to insure the safety of your guest, and if that means in Idaho Springs you get arrested, well I guess we'll just get arrested."
Perhaps, but they got the job done.
They got the job done?
Ryan, from Arkansas Adventures got the job done.
The Sheriff department got nothing done but making time.
This has the ring of truth. The LE involved should be reprimanded for trying to pull rank on this guy with a life at stake.
Need to nip it, nip it in the bud!
Day after day I try to convince myself that the police in this country just can’t get any dumber. Day after day they prove me wrong.
So, once again, we have another clear but isolated and “rare” case of the 99% giving the 1% a bad name.
My quote was from the dude at Arkansas Adventures regarding his guides, not the Sheriff’s Dept.
Thanks for posting the Snodgrass letter.
You’re welcome.
It is a crime everywhere.
I am committing it now by not working and paying taxes.
No matter how dire the situation, it can always be made worse by adding a cop.
I was arrested once for assisting a roadside accident victim to breathe.
In retrospect, I should have gotten "certified" first.
Never again.
The most heinous crime on the planet.
I am speechless at the ignorance of the authoritarian rescue idiots.
If a fistfight is necessary, it is always better to both start it and finish it quickly.
Your masters.
And excellent.
You have to be kidding prosecutors routinely go to the wall on DWI arrestes with a 0.00% BAC.
Where have you been?
Government budgets and union jobs are at stake.
You obviously don't have your priorities in order.
Off to re-education camp with you.
Okay.
(hangs head low and walks back to barracks, to wait for gruel and scratch mark another day on the wall)
Just wait until you have "contact" with one of them.
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