Despite a dramatic rescue effort, two men are presumed dead after a group of rafters toppled over the Bow River weir on Sunday evening.
A couple of key points for me from the news last night:
- People were not wearing life jackets
- Obviously there was no plan for getting around the weir.
Every year we see deaths on the Bow, and I'd really hate to see them put a ban on rafting due to some people's stupidity. I've seen people rafting down the river on inflatable mattresses (not even a real boat) and when the fire department shows up they put on their life jackets, and then take them off again one the firemen leave.
It doesn't matter how good of a swimmer you are; if you go into 5 to 10 degree water you have a minute- maybe two before you start to suffer the effects of hypothermia.
For those of you new to Calgary and don't know where the weir is- it's just east of downtown on the Bow. You can see it from Deerfoot just south of Memorial when driving southbound. Arial shot of it
here.