Terrible accident. My thoughts and prayers are with the surviving kid.
Call me insensitive, but what the hell were they thinking playing in the Red River of all places if they didn't know how to swim? Even if you are a good swimmer, the Red River is nothing to play around with.
Horrible. Just horrible.
Tragic. We hang out on the sandbar just down the river from where they were at. I consider myself to be a good swimmer but am always extra cautious when I go out in the river. It truly does drop off very quickly.
It's a 159 degrees and they had probably done this a 1,000 times but the river was lower than usual and thus they happened upon the sinkhole -
Surprised it doesn't happen more often than it does considering how accessible the river is and how changing the river is -
And this coming from someone who has done the exact same thing and worse in my youth on Bayon Dorcheat, Lake Bistineau, Lake Claiborne and various other north la waterways and empoundments...
Worse beatings I ever got was from floating a john boat out into my granddad's pond and then me and my brothers would dive and swim through the various concrete culverts he placed on the bottom for catfish habitats - first he beat us and then my dad beat us
And that's just one example of stupid things I did in the water without alcohol being involved
Kids are STUPID by nature -
This was just a tragic tragic situation
''Don't be a bad dagh..."
I am shocked that the entire group had no swimmers. It's basic safety to learn how to swim.
I've also gone down the Caney Lake (Minden) spillways (both) on tubes and went over the Bistineau spillway in a 10ft john boat - dove off tressels on Dorcheat (if you've seen Dorcheat when the bayou's low you realize how idiotic that was) and various other feats of stupidom...
I've also been in a swimming pool at RA Camp at Camp Harris with three lifeguards in addition to adult chaperones and had one of my childhood best friend's little brother drown and we did not even know it happened until we started looking for him when it was time to get out of the pool - and that's something I live with everyday 30+ years later
This was a tragic tragic accident - could it have been avoided, maybe, but once that sinkhole started collapsing and sucking & dragging them under they were at the mercy of the river
''Don't be a bad dagh..."
This was a tragic tragic accident - could it have been avoided, maybe, but once that sinkhole started collapsing and sucking & dragging them under they were at the mercy of the river
That is what people don't know. People are out on the sand bars all the time around Shreveport. I am amazed because it runs through my family's property and we wouldn't dream of it because we know of the dangers. This is an accident. Please stop the "they should have known how to swim" stuff. Things like this are not planned by anyone and the article said they hung out there all the time. They were in shallow water until one fell in the sink hole and they started grabbing each other and got pulled in. Both the Shreveport Times and Fox News have comments slamming the parent because no one could swim- please have a little more compassion. Two families each lost 3 children- they will live with that for the rest of their lives. They don't need second guessers.