RED WING, Minn. – A disabled pleasure boat with four children aboard was pushed by strong current into the path of barge in the main Mississippi River channel. Four children were rescued, one of them critically hurt. Sheriff Marty Kelly said that life-saving measures were performed on the child, who was taken then to the Red Wing hospital. The other three children were wet but OK. So was Jeremy Koenig, 45, of Red Wing. The collision was about 5:50 p.m. off the Ole Miss Marina. The marina a few blocks upriver from downtown Red Wing. The sheriff said that Koenig’s craft experienced a mechanical failure and couldn’t get out of the barge’s way. The children all were wearing life jackets, the sheriff said. No alcohol was at issue, he said.
Ole Miss Marina. The accident was off the marina. Barges strung together and pushed by towboats in the narrow main channel on the Minnesota-Wisconsin state line. As many as 15 barges, strapped three abreast, can be as long as 1,500 feet plus a 200-foot tow boat. These massive arrays are hardly nimble to maneuver, especially in tricky currents.