Man dies in boat accident at Lake Mohave

Monday, Sept. 12, 2005 | 10:53 a.m.

A California man died in a boat accident at Lake Mohave on Saturday, and a 28-year-old Los Angeles woman was rescued from Lake Mead later that same day, a National Park Service spokeswoman said.

About 9 a.m. Saturday, Conrad Bernard Lorbiecki, 58, of Trabuca Canyon was riding on the bow of a boat when he fell off the vessel at Cottonwood Cove on Lake Mohave, Park Service spokeswoman Roxanne Dey said.

Somehow, he became pinned between the boat from which he fell and the courtesy dock, Dey said. The boat was going about 5 mph, she said.

Park Service rangers arrived less than five minutes after Lorbiecki was crushed but were unable to save him, Dey said.

Twenty-one people have died this year to date at Lake Mead National Recreation Area, said Dey. In 2004, 23 people died at the recreation area, she said.

The rescue occurred about 1:40 p.m. Saturday.

Park Service dispatchers received a call from a distraught husband that his wife was riding a personal watercraft, but she failed to meet their group near Temple Bar, their rendezvous point on Lake Mead, Dey said.

The group from Los Angeles had rented a houseboat, speed boat and several personal watercraft, Dey said.

A search began that included four Park Service boats, two Nevada Division of Wildlife vessels, a Metro Police Search & Rescue helicopter, a Bureau of Reclamation airplane flown by a Park Service pilot and a private boat.

The Park Service received another call at 5 p.m. from the group, saying the woman had been found in the water, wearing her life jacket. Somehow, she had become separated from her watercraft, Dey said.

Winds were blowing 30 mph and there were gusts of wind up to 68 mph while the search was in progress, Dey said.

Park Service rangers and state Division of Wildlife wardens arrived at Walker Bay and found that the woman did not need medical attention, Dey said.

The full names of the woman, identified only by her first name "Kelly" and other people in the Los Angeles group were not available, Dey said.

How the woman became separated from her personal watercraft was unknown, she said.