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Accessible isn’t enough! 12/4/2006 Editor’s Note: The following story is a personal account of a recent, near fatal accident in southern Idaho on the Snake River. It seems that every year one or more similar accidents occur during the waterfowl season. In some cases the results are often much more disastrous and fatal. What follows is the personal account of Boise resident Paul Davis, his son Bob and close friend, Mark Olsen. They were among the lucky ones. I have been hunting the Snake River for waterfowl for the better part of 25 years. I have hunted from Parma to Glenns Ferry. I wear my life jacket, and make sure my passengers do as well, every time we put in the water. This has never been more important than it was Nov. 18. It was about 3:45 a.m. when my son Bob and I were putting gas in our boat. I was telling Bob that the reason we have been so lucky on the river is that I am a bit afraid of the Snake River. I have the utmost respect for the river and I know how dangerous it can be. As I tell this story I want you to know that all the respect, fear, caution, or whatever you choose to call it, would not have saved our lives without our personal flotation devices or PFDs. I am sure that if we followed Idaho law and had them accessible (under a seat, nearby, etc) we could not have made it out of the river. We met our hunting buddy Mark Olsen just before 5 a.m. and headed to the river. We put the boat in at 5:30 a.m. and went upriver. Before we left, I made sure we all had our life jackets on. It was very dark out because there was no moon shining. I always hunt upriver from the vehicle just in case we have boat trouble and need to drift downstream to the vehicle. When we started up the river I saw some lights on the bank from another group of hunters that was setting up for an early shoot. I thought to myself, they were in a spot that was poor choice of places to hunt and we went about 100 yards further up the river. The river is a few hundred yards wide in this spot, but I knew where the other hunters were in relation to us. We had only been in the boat on the river about 10 minutes when the jet pump took on a little moss, restricting the flow to the intake of the jet pump on the motor. All hunters who have a jet boat have faced this issue in the Snake River. We were next to an island and because of lack of power we started to drift backwards. I turned the spotlight behind us and saw that the river current was pushing us into a Russian olive tree that was growing out over the river on the side of the island. The tree was half in and half out of the water. I said, “This is going to ugly fast.” And in a matter of two or three seconds we were in the water. The boat had ridden up a big branch that was under the surface of the water. The other side of the boat went down into the water and the current turned the boat over. Once we were in the water, I called Bob to make sure he was not under the boat. He answered and said he was OK. Both Bob and I started calling for Mark and didn’t hear him for a second or two, then we heard him call out that he was alright and safe on the island. It was so dark that we couldn’t even see each other. The boat was upside down but the stern light was glowing underwater. I got hold of the boat and told Bob to grab on to the boat and hold on. I wasn’t sure if the boat would float us both, so I made a decision, which turned into a huge mistake, and let go of the boat. I tried to swim to a point about 250 yards downstream. I could see the silhouette of the point in the dark but I really had no idea it was that far. However, I was really comfortable and confident about getting there with my life jacket on. It is a giant pain to swim with hunting coats and waders on, and the current took me past the point. I started to become exhausted and tried to get to shore. I looked upriver and saw that the other hunters had found Bob, so I yelled for help as loud as I could. I kept trying to stay afloat and moving to shore. I heard them yell, “Where is he?” It was so dark that they couldn’t see me. Then I remembered that I had a headlamp on when I started out, so I reached up and felt it was still on my head. I managed to turn it on and I immediately heard them say, “There he is!” They got to me in what I thought was just in the nick of time. I suppose I could have floated some, but my waders wanted to float up and I couldn’t relax. They pulled me into their boat and took me to the boat ramp. They made several more trips to get Mark and Bob. Once we knew we were in deep trouble, we kept our senses about us and everything that needed to go right went right. There are many things that had to be right in order for us to have survived; the other hunters being where they were, our headlamps, the boat floating upside down and many other things. But one thing I know for sure is, if we would not have had our PFDs on, none of the other things would have made any difference at all. I would like to thank Dennis and Clay Ludington and some guys in another boat whose names I don’t know. I would also like to thank the Elmore County Sheriff’s Department and its marine division. I would also like to thank God for hearing our prayers. |
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