YOUNG MAN DROWNED

Press, Volume LXXXV, Issue 25998, 29 December 1949, Page 6

YOUNG MAN DROWNED

BODY RECOVERED ACCIDENT IN TEREMAKAU RIVER From Our Own Reporter GREYMOUTH, December 28. The body of John Keenan, who was drowned while attempting to cross-the Teremakau river with a party of members of the Canterbury Mountaineering Club, was found by a search party this afternoon, near the scene of the accident. Mr Keenan, a single man, aged 20, a draughtsman employed by the Ministry of Works at Christchurch, was drowned shortly before noon yesterday when he and four companions, all of Christchurch, were attempting to ford the flooded river about one and a half miles above the junction of the Teremakau and Otira rivers at Aickens, seven miles from the Otira township. It was not until last evening that the members of the party reached Otira with the news of the accident. The river was considerably swollen after the stormy weather at the weekend and was about three feet deep where the mountaineering party decided to attempt the crossing. They linked their arms and pick axes as they entered the stream, with Mr Keenan on the downstream side. When th£ party was well into the river Mr Keenan was swept off his feet and was swiftly carried 100 yards downstream before being held temporarily by a snag in the river. Attempts were made to reach him with a rope and one member of the party got to within 10 feet, when he suddenly disappeared, and was not seen again. After an unsuccessful search the other four members of the party made their way out of the mountains, reaching Otira shortly before 7 o’clock. The members of the partv were Messrs Martin Barribald, of Spreydon, and Donald Hayward, Stanley Johnstone, and Malcolm Stewart, Sil of Sumner. Constable P. Larner, of Otira, communicated with a party of experienced mountaineers camped in the Arthur’s Pass area, and under his direction they set out this morning to make a search. An inquest will open at Otira at 4 p.m. to-morrow.