OUTLAW EAGLE MANUFACTURING

YKX · Joined: 21 Jul 2005 Posts: 181 Location: Yellowknife

A three-year-old boy is lucky to be alive after he drove his toy truck - possibly a GMC! - into the Peace River and floated 12 kilometres downstream.

Canwest News Service says the boy drove into B.C.'s Peace River and floated 12 kilometres downstream before he was rescued.

Fort St. John RCMP Const. Greg Nardi told The Vancouver Province the boy went missing from a campsite where his parents were camping around 7:30 a.m. Sunday.

A full-scale search was mounted as campers from the Peace Island municipal park in Taylor joined in the search. The police dog service was dispatched and search and rescue personnel were contacted, said Nardi.

“He was on a battery-powered children’s 1/8toy 3/8 truck,” said Nardi. “His mom said he really likes driving through puddles in it. “There were four or five boats on the river,” added Nardi.

Around 10 a.m. the boy’s parents were told that a boater had located the boy 12 kilometres away floating on the miniature truck. “Everybody was a little frantic at the time,” said Nardi.

“I was surprised that the truck was floating at all,” he said, adding the boy was in good shape when he was rescued. Nardi and his partner drove the boy, a Fort St. John resident, to hospital. He brightened up about 10 minutes into the drive.

“I think he was more excited about being in a police car than he was about his rescue,” said Nardi.

Police did not release his name, but Global News reported his name was Dimitrius Jones and it was his third birthday.

Pride N Joy · Posted: Tue Jul 14, 2009 12:36 pm Post subject: WTF!!!

OK I'll ask the big question that everyone else wants too!!!!

Where the hell were the Parents??
Let me see...
Three year old boy= Adventurist!!!
Battery Powered Truck= Mobility!!!
Fast flowing River= Huge Danger!!!

Parents Not watching 100% of the time and getting away this lucky= one big ass Miricle!!!

"Thank God" it turned out good for them all...

Hats off to our fellow Jet Boaters that saved the day again....

Itsworthit · Joined: 15 Jun 2005 Posts: 432 Location: Whitecourt

Check the link at cbc.ca, sayd that the grandparents were the care givers, glad all is well now, was a good article, one lucky kid, he was picked up by a riverboater, strange how this all works heh, fishermen, canoers, and other naysayers seem to be on our case, BUT when there's trouble, the always reliable jetboaters step up to the plate and deliver, good job to Don Loewen

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2009/07/13/bc-rescued-3-year-old-swept-down-bc-river.html

Pride N Joy · Posted: Tue Jul 14, 2009 1:10 pm Post subject: Wow

Don't get me wrong folks...

Just sayin!!

I spent some time doing a body recovery on the Clearwater River up here in the Mac.
I had Devon Rock's Grandfather in my Boat while looking for the two young men that didn't make it to shore one rainy night...

It is a heart wrenching thing to have to do, but we had to try to find those boys for the family's sake.

It can always be prevented!!!

We are very fortunate that it's not a body recovery in this case....

I'm very glad that it turned out the way it did...

padgett114 · Joined: 23 Jun 2005 Posts: 82

If you have a 3 year old you know just how fast they can get away. We can't always blame the parents. I am sure they feel bad.

Thank God he was ok.

Xerophobic · Posted: Wed Jul 15, 2009 11:58 pm Post subject:

thats one incredible story and one ultra lucky little
boy. Never creases to amaze me how these stories seem to go unoticed when it coems to talking about boatin the rivers.

I rescued a kayaker today on the Bow who had flipped and was in the water floating down some fast flowing stufff. She was half frozen and had lost her paddle. Eventually got her in the boat and back to her group who were already way downstream and we found her paddle even further downstream. Despite all that some jerk on shore has the nerve to give us greif for passing them 3-4 times because they r "trying to fish" and have guests "from out of town". Im like wtf do you happen to notice the shivering girl AND HER KAYAK in my boat lol

some people are clueless......

Arthur · Posted: Thu Jul 16, 2009 6:55 am Post subject:

Viking502 · Joined: 23 Nov 2007 Posts: 137 Location: Alberta Beach, AB

VERY LUCKY KID.
I have 2 boys, a five and a three year old. Both are very adventurous and daring (pretty much not scared of anything). I have them on the river with me alot. It makes me sick to my stomach to think of how quickly a good time can go very bad.
"MY HATS OFF" to the rescuers.
"MY ASS HANGING OUT" to the people who complain about river boaters.
And just wondering if the truck the boy was riding/floating in had an 800 or 1250 GPM bilge pump!!!

shallow draft · Posted: Thu Jul 16, 2009 9:57 am Post subject:

Something that may be of value is a thread that lists river rescues by riverboaters.
We all have stories of rescues, some official when we are called by RCMP or SAR and many more un-official that we have been invoved in just because we are there.
We continue to battle the negative pereptions by some of the other river users and if there was a easily accessable page that illisrtated the number of rescues that we are involved in, it might help when the topic comes up.
I know that we will never convince some of the hard core anti river boat people that we have a right to use the river but there is many people that just need a little education.

forwalk · Joined: 14 Jul 2009 Posts: 1

Rocky Mountain House has had a long history of some great river boating and associated activities.
The town businesses as in all communities that have river access benefit from the tourist traffic of river users to varying extent.
However jet boaters provide the town businesses with the most money IE: weekend food and lodging $300-$500., fuel for boats and trucks $150-$200, and miscellaneous $100. or more per weekend.
Our old boat launch got reclaimed when the town rebuilt the new bridge and did not rebuild a new one for us an unfortunate oversight.
We too help the local RCMP, Search and Rescue, and Fire Department with rescues and recoveries but we don't have a suitable boat launch.
The local fire department and Fish and Wildlife are in support for a new boat launch to facilitate rescues and that a separate area for power boaters just makes sense and is safer for all river users.
What I need from the jet boat community out there is letters of support (both as private jet boat users and jet boat operators who help with river users in distress)sent to me at forwalk@shaw.ca Thanks Jim