On 5-21-11 the bartholomew co. Emergency operations center received a 911 call regarding a boat that had capsized in the driftwood river. The caller advised that himself and another person were in the water, but three other victims had made it to shore. The bartholomew county water rescue and recovery team was contacted and responded to the incident. Other officers responded to the scene and located the two subjects, straddling a tree branch that was sticking out of the water. They kept a visual on the victims while boats were en route to rescue them. The two male subjects were picked up by a rescue boat along with the three other subjects that were on the shore.
   the victims told officers on scene that they were bored and had decided to float down the river. They put their paddle boat in at the lowell access site at approximately 01:00 hrs and all they had with them were a few flashlights. They were attempting to navigate the river by listening for noise of obstacles in the water, but they did not hear one obstacle which was a large tree that had fallen into the water. Their paddle boat struck the tree and overturned. The subjects also advised officers at the scene that one of them could not swim and that they did not have life preservers with them. Information regarding the boat was not available because the boat had sunk in the river and the subjects advised the officer's on scene that they had found the boat on the river. There was also not an actual operator of the boat because all five subjects were just floating down the river on the paddle boat and it did not have any kind of motor.

Columbus                      