ROCK SPRINGS – Four quick-acting Utah boaters averted a tragedy on Flaming Gorge May 18. Sweetwater County Sheriff Rich Haskell said Dalton Campbell, 20, Bennett Holton, 20, and 19-year-old Skyler Siddaway, all of Kamas, Utah, were boat fishing in the Anvil Draw area Saturday afternoon when bad weather and high winds struck the lake.

Their small 12-foot aluminum craft, fitted with a 6-horsepower outboard motor, began taking on water and quickly swamped, dumping the three into the 52-degree water.

Haskell said four other Utah men, Richard Vollmer of Sandy, John W. Gunn and Gregory Krstyn of Kearns, and Robert Frank Szwedko of West Valley City, were nearby in their own boat and were able to pull the three men from the water. The swamped boat was towed to the Anvil Draw boat ramp by Sheriff Haskell and Deputy Sheriff Scott Meyers, who were on the lake in the Sheriff’s Office patrol boat. Haskell and Meyers were assisted by game wardens of the Wyoming Game & Fish Department and a United States Forest Service law enforcement officer.

Campbell was not wearing a Personal Flotation Device (PDF) at the time of the mishap and was very close to going under for the last time when he was rescued.

While Campbell, Holton, and Siddaway were technically in compliance with Wyoming boating laws in that PDFs (often called life jackets) were available on the boat, not physically having his on when the boat swamped nearly cost Campbell his life.

“It’s best to have a PDF on the entire time you’re on the water,” Haskell said.  “Were it not for Vollmer, Gunn, Krstyn, and Szwedko being there and taking such swift action, this would very likely have been a fatality, and perhaps more than one, given the frigid water conditions.”

Just under three weeks ago, on May 2, the body of 46-year-old drowning victim Danny Angelo Durante, of Jackson, Wyoming, was recovered from Jug Hollow on Flaming Gorge on the Utah side of the lake, about 5 miles generally south of Anvil Draw.  Daggett County, Utah, authorities say Durante was boat fishing alone on the day of his disappearance and believe his boat capsized in heavy weather.

Haskell emphasized the importance of getting off the lake in a hurry when bad weather approaches, especially in a small craft.  “It’s wise never to take chances on Flaming Gorge,” he said.  “If a storm is approaching, put in to shore and ride the storm out there.”