Boating mishap severely injures woman: Quick action from bystanders helps save 2 boaters

Quick action from eyewitnesses helped rescue two people who were thrown from their boat into the cold water of Rice Lake Friday.

But the mishap left one woman seriously injured.

Gary Scheeler, Brainerd City Council member, was out in his yard after 6 p.m. and near the shoreline when he heard the motor of a boat roaring and then a scream.

"I could see the boat going over the top of those two people in the circle of death," Scheeler said. "I started running around looking for a boat."

There was only one on the shoreline.

Scheeler's neighbor Julie Kletscher's husband Dan just put their pontoon in earlier Friday afternoon. The two ran to her pontoon and got it started and maneuvered the pontoon in to help. Kletscher was handling the pontoon as Scheeler reached out to the people in the dark water. He said just their faces were visible above the water. The woman was losing consciousness after the boat hit her in the head, Scheeler said.

"There was a big pool of blood in the water around her," he said. Scheeler was able to grab the woman's arm. He said her left hand was injured by the boat's prop. "I told her I wasn't going to let go. ... She just kept staring at me with her eyes glazed."

Scheeler said he used energy he's never had in my life.

"I just basically just hung on," he said. "I kept telling her to keep her head out of the water."

Scheeler said the woman gave all her strength to survive before they arrived. The man in the boat with her went back to help pull her out of the boat's path but it kept circling toward them. After help arrived, the man was able to get aboard the pontoon but they could not lift the woman aboard. Scheeler took a rope and put it through the woman's pant loop.

With the inability to see past a foot in the dark water, Scheeler said he was determined to hang on and looped the rope over his hand until it cut through his skin. Hours later, he was still shaking from the experience.

"It's scary, very scary," he said.

Scheeler said he just hopes it provides a lesson for others. Neither the man nor the woman in the water were wearing life jackets.

The Crow Wing County Sheriff's Office reported the mishap occurred when the boat's driver let go of the tiller handle and the two occupants went overboard while the boat began what is known as a circle of death. The boat struck the woman who was severely injured and later airlifted to Hennepin County Medical Center in Robbinsdale. The man was not reported injured.

A couple of men were driving across the Mill Avenue bridge when they saw the 17-foot long boat spinning in the water nearby. They pulled into the nearest home and tried to help. One of the men, Robert Gallagher, was on his way home from work when he glanced at the water, saw the boat and knew there were people in distress.

"Whenever you see a boat doing that it is never good," Gallagher said.

Gallagher said the boat came back around and hit the woman. The woman was conscious but barely, Gallagher said, as rescue personnel and passers-by helped pull her from the water.

"They were just pulling them out of the water when I pulled up. It wouldn't have been much longer and they both would have drowned."

Without quick action with residents and the pontoon, bystanders said it could be a much different story.

One couple who live on the water watched as the boat and its two occupants made its way along water from Rice Lake heading out into the Mississippi River near the Mill Avenue Bridge. They were remarking it was the second boat they saw this open-water season heading out past their home. The witnesses declined to be identified.

"We were watching and boom out they went, they made a turn and they both flew out of the boat," the woman said. They were among those calling 911 Friday seeking help.

The boat, the couple said, was going along at a pretty good clip.

They said Scheeler, who also lives nearby on the water, went out in a pontoon to try to rescue the boaters. They could hear people on the pontoon yelling for help as they were struggling to lift the stricken woman onto the pontoon. For the eyewitnesses on shore who didn't have a boat or pontoon in the water yet, it was a helpless feeling.

"There was nothing we could do," the woman said. "Gosh, there was nothing to do, but what we did, call 911, unless you have a boat in the water. ... It's disturbing to see people in distress like that."

Across the expanse of Rice Lake, people were gathered near the boat access and the fishing pier watching the boat circle in the distance. A flash of light as sun caught the tightly circling boat caught the attention of four friends out enjoying the warm afternoon at Lum Park. At first Branden Tandeski, and Braedon Metz, both of Brainerd, thought the boaters were just fooling around.

Tandeski said they watched a few more moments and realized the boaters were in real trouble. They called 911 and heard there were several calls for help. Tandeski tried zooming in with the camera on his cell phone to see if there were people in the water, but they were too far to get those details. They watched as a pontoon circled around the boat. It was hard to distinguish the details.

"I don't even know how they are going to stop that," Tandeski said of the continuously circling fishing boat.

The boat was still circling, with its engine no longer producing a steady sound, after 7:30 p.m. and moving closer to coming into contact with the shoreline. Members of the Crow Wing County Sheriff's Office Boat and Water Division were trying to foul the boat's propeller and end the spiral.

Sgt. Adam Kronstedt, Crow Wing County Sheriff's Department, said they were able to finally stop the boat but it took a lot of rope to foul the prop. The water temperature, according to the depthfinder on the sheriff's boat was 44 degrees.

Scheeler said all the stars had to align to save the boaters' lives, such as the pontoon being put in the water earlier in the day.

"If that didn't happen those two were gone," Scheeler said. "Thirty more seconds, she was gone. The water is just frigid. ... Once I heard the scream I didn't want to lose them. I wanted to do everything I can."

RENEE RICHARDSON, associate editor, may be reached at 218-855-5852 or renee.richardson@brainerddispatch.com . Follow on Twitter at www.twitter.com/Dispatchbizbuzz .
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