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Alcohol a factor in death of man who crashed his personal watercraft
WEST KELOWNA – The man who drove his personal watercraft into a log boom on Okanagan Lake and drowned last summer was drunk.
According to the B.C. Coroner's report, Patrick Paul Mangold, 47, had a blood alcohol content of 0.16 per cent, which is considered a moderate to heavy level of impairment.
The crash fractured his skull, which knocked him out, but wasn’t the cause of death.
He drowned.
No one saw the Aug. 24 accident in Traders Cove on Okanagan Lake in West Kelowna, but the people on a nearby boat heard it happen and found Mangold within minutes.
He was wearing a personal floatation device and floating face down in the water.
They pulled him from the water and call 911, but by the time firefighters arrived and started CPR it was too late.
It was twilight when the crash happened and coroner Andrew Cave said the watercraft didn’t have any lights.
The log boom didn’t have lights either and would have been tough to see as it bobbed up and down on the surface of the water.
Cave said intoxication and the low light conditions were contributing factors to the accidental death.
He didn’t make any recommendations in his report.
To contact the reporter for this story, email halexander@infotelnews.ca or call 250-491-0331.
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