It's crazy up in Spokomton!

SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) - A Spokane man has been booked into jail after he ran over his wife at Newman Lake and severed her arm with a boat propeller.

The Spokane County Sheriff's Office reports 27-year-old Robert W. Kienel and his wife were in a 20-foot ski boat when the accident occurred about 5:15 p.m. Wednesday.

Marine deputy Patrick Bloomer says while the husband drove the boat, the wife was bow-riding on the front, an activity which is unlawful in the state of Washington. Bloomer says Kienel took a hard turn at about 30 to 35 miles per hour, throwing the woman into the lake.

Bloomer says the boat's propeller struck the woman and severed her left arm below the elbow. The sheriff's office says Mrs. Kienel was taken to a downtown Spokane hospital, where she was expected to survive.

Bloomer says before Kienel was booked into jail, he was taken to a Spokane Valley Medical Center for blood testing. Bloomer says the floor of the boat was "littered with empty beer and wine" containers.

Kienel was arrested for investigation assault by watercraft, a Class C felony.

The sheriff's office says the boat was seized as evidence.

I heard they werent even letting any boats on the water over there and coeurdalene. Water is still too high. Just watchin the news and saw all the dead heads being pulled from lake Wa. 35 tons worth. Scary! Was wakin out there last weekend!

Dead heads?? What are you talking about?

drifting and submerged logs, trees and nature debris..

You guys probably have submerged combines or corn silos there in Ok.
Yeah, big logs and huge stumps that gets pulled into the lake when the water gets real high. We had record snofall and now its melting real fast. causing flooding everywhere.

(Message edited by bondo on May 29, 2008)

Yep, Lake CdA & the Pend O'reille river are no wake zones till Tuesday when they will supposedly go down a bit. The warm weather is sending the snow pack down on us in a hurry!

No problems on Liberty or Newman though. Other than that poor woman. Sounds like the media & the law are really going after the guy hard. Both their families are insisting it was an accident. But the guy is being charged with "Assault by watercraft".

Interesting statement made about that story on KREM..... they said the people were in a bow rider I/O & that the woman was riding in the bow while they were driving about 30 mph. The station insists that "Bow-riding is against the law in the State of Washington." I sent them an email saying this was a load of bull but they just reprinted the story again with the same statement at the end.

http://www.krem.com/topstories/stories/krem2_052808_boatamputation.3bc119ca.html


(Message edited by bill_airjunky on May 29, 2008)

Bow riding is referred to by law as riding on the bow if there are no seats or rail to retain you. You have to be sitting on the seat in the bow

like in a closed-bow?