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Man presumed drowned pushed daughter to shore
| Saturday, Jun 28 2008 10:43 PM
Last Updated: Saturday, Jun 28 2008 10:51 PM
Kern County Sheriff’s Search and Rescue and the county Fire Department searched for a Glendale man presumed drowned in the Kern River Saturday, a day after divers recovered the body of a man who drowned in the river.
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Kern County fire and rescue helicopter #408 searches the Kern River near Live Oak day use area where a man presumably drowned. Shown are his wife, right, and daughter, who he helped out of treacherous area of the Kern River before he came up missing.
Loraine Acosta of Glendale, center, talks with emergency personnel Saturday at the Live Oak day use area where her husband had presumably drowned after trying to help his daughter out of a dangerous area of the Kern River. The girl was fine.
The man was still missing as of 8 p.m. Saturday and the Sheriff’s Department called off the search, which will resume this morning.
Around noon, the Sheriff’s Department received a report of a 38-year-old Hispanic man who went missing in the river near the Live Oak Picnic Area, five to six miles east of the mouth of the canyon on Highway 178.
The family was picnicking at the campground when the man’s 16-year-old daughter was pulled downstream in the swift water, said Kern County Fire Inspector Tony Diffenbaugh. The father jumped in and pushed her back to shore. She escaped, but he was carried down the river, Diffenbaugh added.
Family members lost sight of him west of the picnic area, according to the Sheriff’s Department.
Wendy Sanchez of Bakersfield said she and her family witnessed the incident. The man was in a large family group and several children and adults were playing in the swift water, struggling against the current. When Sanchez’s relative warned the group earlier of the river’s dangers, the man now missing laughed in response.
The two picnicking groups combed the banks searching for him and alerted authorities.
On Friday, friends of 24-year-old Agustin Vasquez Diaz, a tuber who was an inexperienced swimmer, found his body near Hart Park, according to the Sheriff’s Department. His inner tube had popped and he went under the water Thursday afternoon.
Sheriff’s deputies were dispatched shortly before 5 p.m. Saturday to the Black Gulch Campground for reports of another missing person possibly in the river, but it was not a drowning case. The wandering child was found unharmed and was never in danger, said Sheriff’s Senior Deputy Mark King.
The Hart Park drowning was the first of this year and the 243rd in the Kern River since 1968, he said.
People must avoid swimming in the river, he warned. There are many underwater hazards that can’t be seen, such as tree limbs, rocks, and logs.
“The high flow of water going through the canyon makes it difficult for a human body to fight against the river if you’re pinned under a rock or against a tree or under branches,” he said.
The public is urged to use caution while traveling on Highway 178 through the canyon, as several of the turnouts and parking areas near the Live Oak Picnic Area will be occupied by Search and Rescue vehicles, the Sheriff’s Department reported.