No Drinking In Fatal Lake Crash

Mon., Aug. 25, 1997

From Staff Reports

The Kootenai County Sheriff’s Department is still investigating the death of a Spokane Valley man killed on Lake Coeur d’Alene Saturday while riding a personal watercraft. But officials did announce Sunday that the man who collided with Joseph Harper hadn’t been drinking.

Harper, 41, died at Kootenai Medical Center about an hour after his watercraft collided with one driven by a friend, 36-year-old Major Bambino, also of the Spokane Valley. The accident happened at about 5 p.m. during a birthday celebration at Beauty Bay.

Witnesses said the sun was reflecting from the water and may have blinded the men. The impact that later killed Harper immediately knocked him unconscious and put a large hole in the front of the watercraft he was riding.

Sheriff’s Sgt. Dan Soumas said the county hadn’t had a fatal boating accident since April 1995, when a 65-year-old fisherman drowned in Killarney Lake after his boat took on water. , DataTimes

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No Drinking In Fatal Lake Crash

Jesse Tinsley

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