At around 3 p.m., a cargo ship in Linz made an emergency call. The master radioed that at river kilometer 2135 (near the Nibelungen Bridge – left bank of the Danube) a person was floating in the water. This drifts in the fairway in the middle of the valley in the direction of the new railway bridge. According to the cargo ship captain, it was a capsized rower. Luckily, the police boat Lentia was on duty at exactly that time. The officials were at the level of the motorway bridge when they heard the radio message and immediately went in search of the person floating in the water.
Shortly thereafter they saw the helpless man. He clung to the overturned rowing boat (one), again and again he slipped into the about ten degree cold water and waved for help, according to the police. The completely soaked and hypothermic man, a 63-year-old from Eidenberg (district Urfahr area), was secured by the crew of the Lentia and pulled to the recovery platform of the police boat. The rowing boat was fixed there and the casualty was pulled out of the water.
After the rescued had recovered halfway, he described the course of the accident. He tried to avoid a cargo ship, but his rudder hit the cargo ship’s outboard side, causing him to capsize and then float in the water next to his boat. The high waves of the freighter had pushed him out into the middle of the fairway. He was no longer able to turn his boat around on his own. That’s why he clung to the hull of the boat and drifted helplessly down the valley until he was rescued by the police boat.
No injuries were found during first aid by the Red Cross. The athlete continued his journey.
Source: Nachrichten
