A pair of heroic passersby rescued a drowning father and his two young sons after their kayak overturned while sailing in a Utah river, officials said.
Gaar Lausman and Daniel Wright, both from Moab, were at the beach last Thursday along the Colorado River when they spotted a 40-year-old man and his sons, ages 8 and 10, fall into the river when their kayak flipped over, according to the Grand County Sheriff’s Search and Rescue unit.
Lausman, a former associate of the rescue team who was at the beach with friends, “immediately jumped on his paddle board” and found both young boys drowning after being unfortunately trapped by their floatation devices, police said.
The 8-year-old’s life jacket “was too big for him” and failed to keep his head above water, while the 10-year-old only had a waist device that flipped and had him “face down in the water,” the sheriff’s department explained.
While Lausman was able to pull the two boys out of the water and onto his paddle board, he could not reach the father, who had his life jacket on his lap when his kayak flipped.
Fortunately, Wright, who had been jet skiing in the river, rushed to help, initially finding it hard to spot the father who was almost entirely submerged in the water.
“I was just terrified, really, because the guy’s head was only partially out of the water, and as I was coming over to him, he went under a couple times,” Wright told Fox 13.
As the 40-year-old father desperately stuck his hand out of the water for help, Wright was eventually able to grab onto it and pull the man out of the river.
The dad and his sons were all safely transported to shore and suffered no major injury as they declined help from an ambulance, the search and rescue said.
While Lausman and Wright were hailed as heroes by the sheriff’s office, Wright said they just happened to be at the right place at the right time.
“I think anyone would have done what I did in my situation,” Wright said.
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