Subject: Information related to boat tragedy.
Sent: Monday, June 8, 2015, 9:38 PM
To: RCT Online rctonline@gmail.com
It should be noted that the
phone call reporting the boating emergency rang through a Rich County 911
number. Since the boat was found four miles on the Idaho side of the line it
can be assumed that the tragedy occurred in Idaho waters. However, Rich
dispatch and Utah Parks treated it as a Utah emergency and chose not to contact
Idaho State Parks and its marine deputies or Bear Lake Co. Dispatch. It is my
understanding that concerned family actually traveled to the marina and spoke
with Rangers to further clarify their 911 call. Utah continued to treat the
incident as a Utah only emergency for reasons unknown. Bear Lake learned of
the disaster when a Bear Lake road deputy picked up a Rich county deputy for
speeding in the Fish Haven area. "He then then informed the Bear Lake deputy of
the Idaho emergency!
At about 8:39 pm a marine deputy
was dispatched. He subsequently launched at North Beach at about 9:10 and
joined the search site just a couple of miles away. He ran a grid search
pattern with other rescue boats and also talked with another boat in the
search. He was not involved in any of the "finds" but participated in an
efficient manner until the search was complete. Bear Lake marine deputies did
not launch other boats because the search was essentially over by the time the
call came through.
Bear Lake State Park (Idaho and
Utah both) have a long standing record of cooperative efforts in enforcement and
search and rescue. For reasons not yet explained Utah chose not to involve
Idaho help even though the search was on Idaho waters.
Although not privy to all of the
details related to the EMT callout the Idaho EMS self-deployed to the beach
adjacent to milepost 4 north of Fish Haven shortly after 9:00 PM. This was the
closest site to the actual incident. However, Utah had their rescue effort in
full swing and took victims to the marina which was probably the best option at
that time. EMTs responded as asked and would have helped if needed. I don't
think it was ever a battle over crossing the state line--they mostly wanted to
serve in the best manner possible. Again Utah chose not to to activate Idaho
EMS services. They were dispatched separate of any Utah request.
Your statement that Bear Lake
played no substantive role is because they were never notified or requested.
However, when notified they were deployed and served effectively as requested.
They simply had no knowledge of the emergency in progress.
Kirk Rich
Park manager, Bear Lake State
Park (Idaho)
No comments:
Post a Comment