Colorado rafting guide arrested after girl's rescue

Colorado rafting guide arrested after girl's rescue


Clear Creek sheriff's deputies 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 after the Thursday incident with "obstructing government operations," Clear Creek Sheriff Don Krueger said.

"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 at the scene Thursday on Clear Creek just downstream from Kermitts Roadhouse on U.S. 6.
...

"This is just silly. Ryan Snod grass 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 stayed with the girl until the other rescuers could use a line and raft to bring her and him out of the river. He was then arrested.

http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_15281357

I can not decide if we live in a world designed by Kafka, George Orwell or Monty Python.

"Rescuers come onto a scene and they have one person stuck, and they don't necessarily want to put another person in the water, especially if they don't know that person. They are in a tough spot. They don't have the whitewater savvy, but they do have rescue standards and protocols to follow."

Real story: their standards and protocols accomplished NOTHING.
And they are embarrassed by that fact.
And they are stupid and thuggish enough to react to their embarrassment
by ARRESTING the fellow who actually rescued the girl.

Did the rescuer take a serious risk? Certainly.
But it paid off.
And even if it hadn't, it was HIS CHOICE to take that risk.

Fuck those useless moran THUGS who are trying to charge him.

and again- you need to read the story and think about it rather than reacting.

You wanna accuse me of being a Libertarian?
Here? At DU?

Wow, good luck with that!
:rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl:

Name calling is not only counter-productive but is inflammatory. I totally agree. It's a person's own decision, whether it's a good one or a bad one, to endanger their own life. A rafting guide knows good decisions from bad ones from experience 99% of the time, and don't endanger themselves or anyone else on a whim. The NON-experienced rescuers should know when they see someone with experience.

Here's common sense:

If a person is stuck and in no immediate danger, let the professionals on the scene with the proper gear deal with the situation- and follow their instructions- so that they don't risk having to pull your ass out of there, too.

no need to arrest the guy.

Actually- a bit of ridicule and a toss around would have done back in the day.

The arrest is the consequence of another stupid fucking deal- not unrelated to this business- called "zero tolerance."

How in such a short time did so many people go so insane?

Isn't that the million dollar question.

....walks slowly away shaking head in disgust :(

It could be argued, comparing the two "factions" on the scene, that the rafting guides WERE the professionals on the scene.

Better than I did.

Have I told you lately that you rock? :hug:

A Libertarian would just want them to go ahead and die already. Their cries for help are so annoying.

"He probably did not consider that swim very aggressive," Mather said.

"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," Bradford said. "The fact these guys don't understand that is disturbing.

Some times I think that is worthy of a medal. :eyes:

lol.

Southpark does have a lot of truth mixed in. That's why it's so funny!

Clear Creek sheriff's deputies explain that s*** to a jury.

but I doubt it.

A few years ago the same thing happened in San Marcos, Texas. A man was arrested after he saved a drowning man. The guy that was rescued told everyone (including the press) that he was seconds from dying and if this man had obeyed the police he'd be dead. The charges were dropped after the story made national news.

Obviously, the "rescue operation" was much more important
to those cops than the life of the struggling girl.

People with SOULS would be happy that a person was rescued;
these twisted shitheads are upset because they got upstaged.

Fuck them. Fuck them in the heart.

I doubt it.

Once the local 'Action News' team showed up
and shot a fawning interview with their Team Leader,
that is.

Who the hell do you think you are, HELPING someone
without prior approval from the all-powerful Beaurocracy?

Boggles the mind, just how ass-backward things are these days.
Kafca's wildest sarcastic farces had nothing on real life in 2010.

The girl was stuck- not drowning or in immediate danger when he swam out to her.

actions- or knee jerk "fascist police state" types- which is likely what the OP wanted and expected.

Story would of course be different if the girl was drowning... or required his immediate help.

:eyes:

And that's all I have to say about that.

Dude may have deserved a ticket- maybe.

See, this is what I mean when I write about Manichean thinking (i.e. it's all black & white) or the inability to think about and deal with things with any sense of proportionality- or God forbid, a little aforethought, teamwork & discipline.

The river guide sure knows how to swim in rapids. The official resucers should have been happy that he helped, they dont like their "authority" being questioned so they busted someone for rescuing another person. He is a whitewater guide so I am sure he knows what he is doing. As far as I have seen we all have the right to swim if we want to.

Nicely done.

That illustrates quite clearly the point about dangerous, dysfunctional and dumbass attitudes attitudes I was trying to make

Maybe you need to reexamine what exactly you are saying. I have seen no one come to your defense, should tell you something.

Lighten up a little, mate.

Gets your asses into all sorts of troubles- and keeps you from getting out of all sorts of trouble, too.

Props to the OP though- he got what he wanted.

"Smarter" in that sense than many of the folks who have replied.

You must be a bureaucrat somewhere.

"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. Snod grass has been guiding for 10 years, he said."

So everyone who disagrees with you (which is almost everyone on this thread and on the newspaper comment lists) is a "loud one" or "knee jerk fascist police state type".

Or maybe they are simply reasonable people.

you are making an assumption that she didn't need immediate help. Just because she wasn't in immediate physical danger doesn't mean she was scared shitless or otherwise in need of comfort and reassurance. That's a responsibility of rescue personnel, too: to give comfort and reassurance to people who have been injured, until their bodily needs can be more fully attended to.

No one owns me and I am not the subject of any royal family. I am a free individual, born free, and if I want to risk my own life that is my business. If I kill myself it is my own affair. The guy who resuced the woman made a risk assesment and determined that he could save the girl with minimal risk to his life. Sending someone to jail because they felt moved to help another person who was in danger is just wrong.

on the one hand I get it why you do not want somebody who is NOT part of the team involved... yes it increases in theory the risks to everybody... but on the other hand I have used people who have very particular knowledge in rescues... including an American EMT who just happened to be at a scene before we arrived. Yes I used the extra hands to package patient onto stretcher and line system.

On and good luck to the Pros getting a conviction... (they won't mostly)

Colorado has a very mountain "fend for yourself" frontier attitude. Which will work when a jury says "well he rescued her without waiting for the govt to do something...."

most juries will go... you shit me right? And since nobody got hurt... no harm, no foul.

On the bright side if I got sent to that jury pool I'd be sent home in two seconds flat!

Not having been there complicates our analysis, too. I can identify with the, "Oh, crap, now we have TWO rescues to do!" reaction, however.

been there too... we had a kid, who barely got out of advanced first aid, who was telling us Paramedics HOW to do our job... I finally turned to the well meaning kid and told him, look you got what 20 hours? We got 3000, and a doctor on the other side of the radio.

But, but... I am American Red Cross Certified! I asked the cop to keep him away from us. Well meaning kid... and it was his friend, I get it, but... later at the ER I slowly explained to the kid what we did though.

Worrying or caring about getting arrested would have made no difference...Colorado Water is Cold,Hypothermia sets in FAST,People in the water will lose their common sense in a hurry!

Hypothermia does strange things to the thinking processes,for the untrained this is deadly.

I'll bet my next paycheck that the Guide was better trained in "Fast Water Rescue" than those Co. Sheriffs.

Hey, good luck with that prosecution!! (wanna be the DA's office doesn't touch this with a ten foot pole?)

:rofl:

IMO Snodgrass acted appropriately.

I've seen them go horribly wrong - for victims, civilians and for rescuers. I guarantee you the rescuers became very aware of that in their training.

The rescue teams have the training & the right equipment to do them more safely than a river guide.

to get the other articles and the pics. But, The guide didnt rescue anyone. The girl was on the other side of the river on the bank waiting. She was sitting there with a wetsuit on. The rescue team had made contact with her. The guide was showboating. he sat there until the rescue team arrived and then decided to swim to the other side. He was told not to go as he was wearing jeans and no life vest. The rescue team then had to go to the other side and get the girl and the guide. He should have at least been ticketed

I'm sure in her eyes he is anyway.

The guides are trained professionals, and are the first responders to normal mishaps in their course of operations. Formal charges being pressed is ridiculous and the DA should not proceed any further. This should have been dealt with in a closed door meeting between all involved.