Scottish tourist still missing after B.C. tubing accident
A married B.C. couple and a tourist from Scotland died near Grand Forks Saturday
The search continues for a person presumed drowned after a weekend tubing accident on notoriously dangerous rapids near Grand Forks, B.C., on Saturday.
Officials say three people were caught up in the current and missed the takeout point while floating down the Kettle River.
They continued into deadly rapids and were pulled over Cascade Falls into the canyon.
The bodies of a B.C. couple in their 70s were recovered over the weekend. On Monday, the B.C. Coroners Service confirmed their identities as 74-year-old Ronald Legare, of Christina Lake, and his spouse, 71-year-old Jacqueline Jean Legare.
The search continues for the body of a 50-year-old Scottish tourist.
All three were part of a larger group of about 13 people who went tubing down the Kettle River.
Lawrence Radford, who is with Grand Forks Search and Rescue, said each year people recklessly tube, swim and jump off a bridge in the area.
And each year it ends in tragedy.
"In the last 12 years we have taken 10 people out and there is still one in there," said Radford.
"I have a 10-foot pontoon boat that I fish from and there are certain areas I don't go to — and that is one of them," said Radford.
"It's very frustrating from my point of view as fire chief to have to recover bodies of sometimes young and sometimes old people and it seems so needless," said Christina Lake fire Chief Ken Gresley-Jones.
"Unfortunate decisions were made here and it cost them their lives."
Authorities warn B.C.'s rivers are especially dangerous this year because of higher than average rainfall and snowmelt causing them to run faster and higher.
With files from the CBC's Bob Keating