Lakeside accidents keep deputies busy

One boater died Saturday after his boat went airborne near Black Lake. On Monday, a Spokane woman was seriously injured when the boat she was riding in hit a bridge near Harrison, Idaho, forcing the bridge’s closure.

A swimmer drowned in the St. Joe River on Saturday after rescuing a boy, and a woman was critically injured Sunday when she fell from a cliff near Powderhorn Bay on Lake Coeur d’Alene.

“It’s been a long weekend,” said Sgt. Andy Boyle of the Kootenai County Sheriff’s marine division. “Some of it was inexperience. Some of it was people doing bad things.”

A dozen Kootenai County marine deputies logged 16-hour shifts through the first big boating weekend for the waters of North Idaho, where many folks from the region go to play.

• The weekend started with the first boating fatality in about two years when Robert Doyle Herrmann, of Deary, Idaho, missed a sharp curve in the Coeur d’Alene River, causing the 22-foot Chaparral boat to go airborne with four other people inside, Boyle said.

The boat came to rest upside down some 40 feet up the shore about 10 miles upriver from Harrison. Herrmann was killed and passengers Allana Davy and Sarah Lohman were transported to Kootenai Medical Center.

Lohman was admitted with a broken ankle, and Davy was treated and released. The owner of the boat, Cory Burnette, was first taken to Benewah General and later transferred to Moscow, Idaho, for unknown injuries, Boyle said.

The fourth passenger, Jason Dean, was examined at the scene and released. All five of those in the boat are from the Deary area, Boyle said.

“Initially, three people were trapped under the boat,” he said.

Sheriff Rocky Watson said Saturday that he believes both excessive speed and alcohol contributed to the accident that occurred at 12:30 a.m. Saturday.

• Later Saturday, Lanny William Swan, 47, of Pullman, drowned after he rescued a child who had drifted into deep water in the St. Joe River near mile post 31.

The Shoshone County Sheriff’s Department said a son of Kenneth Pederson, of Moscow, was playing in the river with a friend when both boys drifted out to deep water.

Swan and Pederson went after the boys and returned them safely to the riverbank. But witnesses said Swan went underwater as the child on his back attempted to jump to the bank. Swan was given CPR for 40 minutes while awaiting an ambulance.

The drowning remains under investigation.

• On Sunday evening, a 47-year-old woman was critically injured when she fell off a cliff near Powderhorn Bay on Lake Coeur d’Alene.

Deputies and emergency medical personnel received the call at about 8:30 p.m. and upon arrival found that the woman had fallen about 30 to 40 feet. She was airlifted by helicopter to KMC where she was listed in critical condition, Sgt. Lee Richardson said in a press release.

The woman’s name was being withheld pending notification of other family members, Richardson said

• Then on Monday, Patrick Watson, of Spokane, was driving his 25-foot boat up the Coeur d’Alene River at 11:50 a.m. when he got distracted and his boat hit the Springston Bridge near Anderson Lake.

The only passenger, Lynn Weidman, also of Spokane, suffered non-life threatening head injuries and was transported to KMC, Boyle said.

Watson told authorities that he was driving about 20 to 25 mph upriver when a bee or wasp started flying around him. Watson told a deputy that he is allergic to bee stings, Boyle said.

“As he was trying to get rid of the bee, he lost control of the vessel, and it struck the bridge,” he said. “It ended up causing damage to the bridge and the vessel.”

Marine deputies also investigated a single-boat accident on Spirit Lake over the weekend that ended with the driver being charged with boating under the influence, Boyle said.

In another single-boat collision, a boater drove over the log booms that separate Lake Coeur d’Alene from the driving range for the Coeur d’Alene Resort Golf Course.

“I don’t know if he didn’t see it or what, but he was taking on water so I think he damaged his lower unit,” Boyle said.

But earlier this year, Sheriff Watson said he commended the marine deputies after having gone two years without a boating-related fatality. So far this year, three boaters have died and several have suffered injuries, Boyle said.

“We are out there just as much as we were before,” Boyle said. “But there are just a lot of people out on the waters.”

Two boaters were cited Saturday night for boating under the influence, Boyle said. In Idaho, boaters can legally have an open beer while operating a boat. But boaters are not allowed to operate a boat if their blood-alcohol content is more than .08 percent.

However, no drunken boating citations were handed out on Sunday when hundreds of boats packed the north end of Lake Coeur d’Alene for the resort’s fireworks display.

“I was out there, and all I could see were boat lights. The radar on my boat was full of green lights,” Boyle said.

Marine deputies spent most of their time herding the boats back to launches or up the Spokane River. Boyle said he has no explanation for the spate of boating mishaps. “These things go in streaks.”