Accident Database

Report ID# 3358

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Accident Description

 pokane River drowning victim identified

By Brian Danner

June 25, 2010

Kootenai County authorities have released the name of the 28-year-old Spirit Lake man who was thrown from a canoe and drowned in the Spokane River near Post Falls, Idaho. The body of Michael W. Blankartz was recovered at about 7 a.m. Thursday a mile downstream from Corbin Park. Maj. Ben Wolfinger says Blankartz and a friend – 29-year-old Danny J. Richison of Post Falls – set out in a canoe at shortly before 6 a.m. Richison says the canoe flipped shortly after they left shore at Corbin Park. Richison says he grabbed onto the canoe for a short time and was able to get back to shore and call for help. Neither man was wearing a life jacket. (AP)

 

Canoeist dies in Idaho river

by KREM.com KTVB.COM Posted on June 24, 2010 at 9:53 AM

POST FALLS, Idaho -- Kootenai County Search & Rescue responders pulled the body of a drowning victim out of the Spokane River in Post Falls early Thursday morning. Officials say the man was a Kootenai County resident in his 20s who was out for a canoe ride with his friend early in the morning. The two put their canoe in at Corbin Park around 4:45 a.m. They planned to get out of the river at Pleasant View Road, then go to work. The man who survived told officials they tipped shortly after getting in the water. He was able to get to the river bank, but watched as his friend drifted out of sight.

The survivor then had to walk about an hour to get to place he could call for help. The Search & Rescue team began combing the river and a MedStar helicopter hovered above trying to help searchers. We're told the man's body was found around 7 a.m. Now, officials are working to notify his family before they release his name. Officials tell our crew on the scene the men had life jackets in the boat, but weren't wearing them when the canoe tipped.

 

Updated Jun 24, 2010 09:44AM

SPOKANE, Wash. The Kootenai County Sheriff’s Department has recovered the body of a man who fell out of a canoe in the Spokane River near Post Falls, Idaho. The sheriff’s department received a 911 call shortly before 6 a.m. Thursday from a man who said he and a friend had just pushed off from shore at the east end of Corbin Park in Post Falls when the canoe flipped and both men were thrown into the water. The caller said he held onto the canoe for a while and then got to shore, but that he last saw his friend floating just below the first set of rapids. Rescue divers recovered the man’s body at about 7 a.m., just below the park. The victim’s name is being withheld until family members are notified. Deputies say neither man was wearing a life jacket.

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