Arkansas Canoe Club Forums

Any more info on sink hole drowning on Spring River? Like PDFs/vests, experience, throw ropes, water temp, etc? Seems like a really freaky accident. Also victim seems to have lost his life trying to help others.

Here's a facebook post by a guy that owns a house across the river from the sink hole. He also told a member of my group Sunday that the victim's group was from some sort of halfway house and the owner of the halfway house was the one who drowned.

the river bottom caved n & created a whirlpool that pulls u under then comes back up about 30' down river. 1 person drown there yesterday & another had broken ribs & another had a puncured lung & had 2 B air lifted 2 hospital, don't know yet if he survived R not. This is @ Saddler Falls n front of my River cabin.& The strange thing is that the man that drown was on a Memorial Float. His father n law had drown n the river 2 years ago. Plus another person drown @ Hardy Beach yesterday. Not a good day on the river I'd say. 6/9/18

I'm guessing we will never know exactly what happened. Since this was posted I've seen several reports, each with minor variations. But this drone footage shows what they were up against pretty well. Basically, a short underwater cave developed that was draining the area between two ledges. I've heard that at least one many was sucked through the cave and popped up in the pool, alive but injured. I think the man that died probably got stuck in the cave. This is probably one of those very rare situations where a life jacket may or may not have made it worse. It might have helped you stay out of the whirlpool, but, once you got sucked in, the life jacket might make it more likely for you to become stuck in the cave. Same thing happens with seat belts - 99% (+?) of the time they make things better, but there are freak accidents where they can make it worse.