Rafters ignored danger warnings prior to fatal capsizing

[Reaper]

Originally Posted by Zee

No one deserves to die to learn a life lesson.

Thining out the herd.

[Bobblehead]

You can't protect everybody from everything. Personal responsibility has to come into the equation at some point.

[Zee]

Originally Posted by Reaper

Thining out the herd.

Thanked because of the username

[GGG]

Originally Posted by GP_Matt

As far as I know they did make specifically for white water users with the cheat on the south side for those to get around. That said though it is still 100% safer than the previous weir as this setup will not hold a person in the feature and will instead push any swimmers straight through. I think a helmet and life jacket are a necessity for the rapid though.

I think this is a key point. If you are wearing a life jacket you shouldn't drown going through Harvey passage. The waterway is designed to push you through.

If you notice in the article he succumbed to his injuries after getting rescued from the water.

I think overall they may have made it a more dangerous situation as the average person may think it is a recreation area like a pool. So while the weir had a 100% chance of death it had very few people going over. here you might have a 1% chance of death with 100 times the traffic of inexperienced users.

Do they still have the rope going accross to stop people from going to close to the rapids or is it all wide open now? If its all wide open then you will probably have more incidents as people who are just floating down the river won't be forced off the river.

I still think this was a good plan by the city but maybe they did a too good of job selling it as making the weir safe.

[HOOT]

IMO it shouldn't be about the money it will cost to save these people but the rescue crews lives they are endangering because of their stupidity.

I'd hate to be the one to tell a family their love one died trying to save somone who was there because they thought it was cool and didn't care about anyone but themselves.

Stupidity should not be awarded!

[Bring_Back_Shantz]

From what I've heard about the new rapids is that the fire department is actually expecting to have to perform more rescues from the rapids now due to the number of people that will be running them, and those that think they are 100% safe.
That being said, they are also expecting that despite more rescues being required,they'll still see fewer fatalities.

So far, not so much though.

[GP_Matt]

At safe river levels I am pretty sure the weir is now safe. During the testing they ran over it on several different rafts facing multiple directions with and without paddles. They may have spilled a few times but always popped right up with their raft.

Anyone wearing a pfd, helmet and possessing the ability to propel their floating body through water should be just fine.

[Coys1882]

Originally Posted by Zee

No one deserves to die to learn a life lesson.

If in your mid 20's you haven't learnt the danger of fast currents and avalanche warnings - are you really going to learn from any lesson? If you just escape with your life won't they just think it was 'radical' instead of thought altering?

[jar_e]

The new Harvie Passage is absolutely unbelievable in regards to responses from CPS/CFD/EMS. I'd say its atleast a daily response for them, if not multiple times a day.

[Slava]

The water diverts there into the irrigation canal. Its on the other side of Deerfoot trail.

Who knew that fotze was such a bleeding heart!

[rd_aaron]

Are the Bow and Elbow rivers themselves (not including the weir) unsafe at the current water levels? I believe the fire chief was on the news last night saying they were.

[surferguy]

The elbow is slightly higher than regular levels right now, IMO safe to run as far as speed but there will be debris snags and other unknowns due to water clarity from the recent high water. Not advisable, but doable

[WhiteTiger]

This is what gets me. What part of "Rapids" implies "Safe passage"?

[4X4]

Originally Posted by WhiteTiger

This is what gets me. What part of "Rapids" implies "Safe passage"?

I have to admit that I was also under the distinct impression that what was once dangerous (the weir) was being transformed into something "safe". I don't necessarily associate rapids with mortal danger. People call any kind of whitewater 'rapids'.
I pretty much thought that I could safely go through this new area in my raft, which is better than a Walmart raft, but not exactly military quality rubber dinghy. And I thought that I'm pretty good at keeping up on the stuff in the news. Which is why I know that nobody is advised to be on the river right now. But again, I thought that I was going to be able to raft from Bowness to Fish Creek in the dog days of summer, without getting out of the river at the weir site.

[Angelamc]

Harvie Passage was designed to take the death factor out of the weir and to also boast a playground for white water enthusiasts within city limits, which not many other cities in North America have. River left, class 3 rapids, is where you see on any given day experienced kayakers hanging out doing their thing. River right or the “Granny Passage” is rated class 2 and meant for the less experienced, but it is still a class 2. Someone may call me on it, too lazy to look it up, but I’m pretty sure that there are no stretches anywhere between Bearspaw and the Zoo that are more than a class one (which most casual Calgary weekend rafters are used to) so even a class two could be challenging for the more” relaxed” rafter. It would require you to be aware and be sure that you have all of the necessary tools, such as paddles, a raft that is better than a dollar store special etc. The raft that flipped in this case had taken river left. That, along with the fact that the river is high and dangerous, as it is at this time every year, didn’t help. Respect the river and wear a life jacket.. oh and if you are too drunk to figure out your right from left, you should get off of the river asap (not saying that alcohol was involved in this case, but just saying)

[T@T]

Question?

Why do all the wimpy people who sit at home on their computers without any excitement in their lives feel the need to bring up the tax dollars going to rescues for people who like to live a little on the edge and enjoy excitement?

A man died enjoying something he was likely passionate about and paid the ultimate price, his family and friends are mourning his loss and all the nitwits have to say is "his family/estate" should pay.

Heartless goofs!

[You Need a Thneed]

Reasons for the weir renovation:

Maintain original purpose - diverting water to the irrigation canal
Recreation - rapids watermark within the city
Eliminating the barrier to fish - fish should now be able to get up as they please, instead of trying to find the narrow fish ladder by the gates.
Restoring navigability - rafters can now go over the weir, and fire dept boats can get up at all times of year.


There is now no boom across the whole river, as there was before. There are boulders guiding more of the river into the easier river right channel. The booms now just block boaters from getting to close to the irrigation gates. There is signage stating that river left is class 3, and river right is class two. The question is how many people know what the different classes are.


I would do a class 3 with a decent raft, life jackets and paddles, and a normal river level. I wouldn't do the river left channel with a Walmart raft, period. The class two is probably fine with an ok raft, life jackets, and paddles, but you might get a little wet. For people just floating down the river, there's a nice portage path.


I believe that I've been over a class 4 rapid in a raft before, but that was a large whitewater raft with a guide. I don't think a raft can really do anything more than a class 4.

[You Need a Thneed]

Originally Posted by fotze

What does a guy like me to do, a guy who is passionate about rafting while getting kfataed on beer and hot red wine poured into two litre plastic pop bottles.

Depending on how many beers, and the size of your raft, river right or portage.

[chemgear]

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgar...ge-victim.html

On one of the occasions when they were walking the raft back up the river to try the trip again, Kuhl said the group was warned the Bow River was unsafe.

“I can confirm that they were stopped and were allowed to proceed,” Kuhl said.

Kuhl said he is left wondering why the group was allowed to try the trip again if conditions were so unsafe.

[ranchlandsselling]

I'm amazed people are on the river right now anyway. I thought it was common knowledge unless you were the river version of Jacques Cousteau or Christopher Columbus you should probably just admire from the sides until it's receded, more shallow, and less fast.

On top of that, I knew the weir change meant less death, I didn't however assume that meant totally safe. When I heard someone died my first thought was "WTF were they doing on the river", second thought was "that's sad".

I was down at the bowmount off leash dog park the other day and wandered to the island connecting the south side of silver springs to bowness. The Island was flooded, the small stream seperating the island from bowmount was a raging river and I think the island were near impassable. I expected that based on the weather and I'm an ignorant fool.

I guess maybe I should disclose that I think floating down the bow seems like a stupid boring waste of time. I honestly don't get why people do it, the majority look like WT who just want to get drunk, litter, piss all over the place, and cause problems or put themselves in life threatening situations.

I'm sure the guys are mostly wanting to see the girls in bikini's and get drunk and the girls likely want a bit of both but also like to lie in the sun and do dick all.