Accident Database

Report ID# 117102

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  • Flush Drowning
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  • Cold Water
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  • One Boat Trip

Accident Description

Male drowns in boating accident near Rinconada 

Staff report May 6, 2023

Taos, New Mexico News 

A mane died Saturday (May 6) on a section of the Rio Grande known as the Racecourse, a 5-mile stretch of river between Pilar and Rinconada that is one of the most popular river trips on the Rio Grande according to Taos County Emergency Services Chief David Varela. 

County medics and law enforcement responded to a report that a male had gone in the water at the Taos-Rio Arriba county line around 2:30 p.m. Varela was not on scene himself, but said reports indicated the man had been under the water for an extended period by the time medics arrived. As of Saturday night, the authorities had not released the male's identity. 

Water levels have been high on the Rio Grande, acequias and streams around Taos County this spring due to a large winter snowpack. Taos Pueblo issued a warning earlier in the week regarding high water and fast currents on the Rio Pueblo, a tributary of the Rio Grande. 

 

There was a rafting accident yesterday in NM. Private trip, 10 ft R3. They flipped in the racetrack section. Water was cold and flooding. One person flush drowned after the group swam for about a half mile. 2 Survived.

2600 cfs very high   Sounds like it happened at the bottom of the "narrows" which if you flip at the top it's  just a flush all the way to big Eddy which is about 1/2 mile.

 

Española-based filmmaker

Death one of many river emergencies reported in New Mexico this month 

By John Miller

Taos News

May 9, 2023 

David Bishop, 50, died on a rafting trip down the Racecourse on the Rio Grande Saturday (May 9). Bishop was a filmmaker who had most recently been working on a documentary about the Osage Nation, a Native American tribe of the Great Plains, according to a friend of the family. 

In an update Tuesday (May 9), the Taos County Sheriff's Office identified the man who drowned when a raft overturned on the Rio Grande last weekend as 50-year-old David Bishop, a filmmaker who had been living in Española.

Speaking with the Taos News Tuesday morning, Sgt. Greg Trujillo said that Bishop and two other men had entered the water in a 10-foot raft at the Quartzite River Access Point Saturday morning, when the river was flowing between 2,400 and 2,500 cubic feet per second, according to data from the United States Geological Survey.  

Their raft overturned on Albert's Falls, the first of several rapids in a section of the Rio Grande known as the Racecourse, which contains continuous Class II and III rapids that can increase in difficulty on high, fast water conditions to Class IV. 

Two of the men were able to make it to shore, but Bishop was unable to swim out of the current, Trujillo said. A kayaker who had come from Albuquerque to run the river found Bishop floating facedown in the water further downstream, but was unable to resuscitate him using CPR. According to Trujillo, Bishop was wearing a life jacket when he went overboard, but was overtaken by the fast current and continuous rapids of the Racecourse. 

In high-water conditions, Trujillo said the river can be unpredictable and dangerous for even the most skilled watermen. "I think people don't realize that, even for people who consider themselves great swimmers, when the river's that high and fast they can't swim as quick as they think they can," he said. "The body just freezes up." 

Steve Harris has been rafting on the Rio Grande since 1978 and is the founder of Far Flung River Adventures. He said the number one factor that can save a person from drowning in the event they go overboard is the proper use of a life jacket, which by law boaters in New Mexico must carry for both pilot and passengers while operating on the water. 

Emergency services teams have responded to several close-calls this spring as rapid snowmelt has caused water levels to rise on waterways statewide. At a press conference over the weekend, representatives from Albuquerque spoke about the importance of wearing a life preserver on the water after the Bernalillo County Fire and Rescue Department saved five people from drowning on Saturday near Siphon Beach, none of whom were wearing life jackets. Over the last 12 months, seven people have died while recreational boating in New Mexico, said Scott Chalmers, a boating safety specialist with New Mexico State Parks who spoke at the press conference.

"People say, ‘Oh, it’s uncomfortable. Oh, I’m a great swimmer.’ That’s not the point," Harris said. "The point is that with a life jacket you’re survivable. You will probably survive your swim. Without the life jacket, you’re at the mercy of Mother Nature." In normal river conditions, guides will advise rafters who are bucked out of a raft to float on their backs and keep their legs pointed downriver. In high, swift currents, however, Harris said boaters — especially those who are running the river alone or without a boat close behind — are in a fight for their lives and should swim diagonally upstream, against the current, until they can reach the shoreline. And, sometimes, Harris added, it's best for less experienced boaters to just stay out of the water, especially when planning to go without the know-how of an experienced guide. 

"Don’t be that guy that overestimates his capabilities," Harris said. "You are a biological organism that responds to the environment that you’re in, and when that environment is 50-something degree water, you have a very short period of time when you’re capable of helping yourself. Ninety-nine percent of river conditions are much more survivable than in a snowmelt stream in the Rocky Mountains."

Becker said Bishop was born and raised in Pawhuska, Oklahoma, and had been living in Española. According to his Facebook page, Bishop studied broadcast journalism and mass communications at Oklahoma State University. His death was first announced on the 990 PHS Huskies Alumni Facebook page: "Hello, friends. I don't have much information but I understand that David Bishop was in a boating accident over the weekend and did not survive. I'm sorry to share the news this way," the post reads. 

After college, Bishop went on to work for the National Park Service as an archeologist and found success working on several films as a writer, director and producer. 

Becker said Bishop's last project focuses on the Osage Nation and is set to release later this month through the Smithsonian Institution.

 

 

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