Raft guide arrested after helping stranded rafter on Clear Creek

[Wulf202]

http://www.denverpost.com/ci_15278256

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."





Direct email krueger@clearcreeksheriff.us
Clear Creek County Sheriff's Office

405 Argentine Street
Post Office Box 2000
Georgetown, Colorado 80444
Call us at: (303) 679-2376

[BigBear]

Wait, wait... am I reading this right?

Recap: kid is in water. Guide jumps in water and recues kid (part of the job btw). Polics arrest guide because he got to kid first?

If I'm reading that right, the PD department needs their badges revoked....Idiots abound.

[ColoWyo]

Chances are the guides were Swift Water Rescue Certified as I was when I was a guide.

What a friggin joke.

[Wulf202]

Chances are the guides were Swift Water Rescue Certified as I was when I was a guide.

What a friggin joke.

They were certified

Wait, wait... am I reading this right?

Recap: kid is in water. Guide jumps in water and recues kid (part of the job btw). Polics arrest guide because he got to kid first?

If I'm reading that right, the PD department needs their badges revoked....Idiots abound.

Kid falls out of boat, the guides search for kid, can't find kid, call in SAR team, kid is spotted, team is setting up, guide can get to kid without issue but is told not to. Guide does it anyways because he's sick of seeing kid in distress while the team is setting up.

I grew up on a Dive rescue team's truck on the columbia in WA, the guide did the right thing.

The sheriff's email addy is in post #1

[jake]

Since it had been so long, Krueger said, it was no longer the rafting company's rescue.

Brilliant

If I call 911 and they take too long to arrive, can I use the same logic?

[Wulf202]

I'll wager he has a Big Gun and a Big Badge to go along with his Big Ego and little Prick...

What a fuckoff.


I'll tell ya this much... if it were MY kid in the water the Guides better have their asses in there trying to help... otherwise they aren't doing their jobs.

The guy is a hero and sheriff butternuts needs to go to Jail for wrongful arrest and false imprisonment.

More than likely the Sheriff himself didn't arrest the guy, he's just backing up his Deputy with the Ego. I can understand backing your guys up but there's a time to use your head and tell your guy he was wrong.

[mx'r]

Libtard queer at work again... maybe the girl should have waited of Obama's bail out... It's the river's fault, and it should be turned off!

[sniper7]

glad the girl is okay, the guide will be fine and can live a good life knowing he did a good job saving the little girl

[Zundfolge]

Bureaucracy is a form of evil.

[rondog]

I thought I'd read that the guide actually found the girl and swam over to her before the rescue team got there? So when the rescue folks got there, he was sitting over there with her, giving her comfort and helping to keep her calm? And for this, they arrested him, for getting in their way, and making them rescue him too? Hell, he probably could have swam back across by himself, and got there quick enough to help pull on the rope.