November 25, 2001 – A 40 year old San Antonio man driving on Hwy 281 in Spring Branch, looses control of his 2000 Nissan Pathfinder and strikes the bridge over the Guadalupe River.  The vehicle overturns and falls 60 feet into the river rapids below.   Witnesses find the unoccupied vehicle upside down in shallow rapids.  The Comal County Sheriff’s Department and Spring Branch FD call SMART to search the Guadalupe River downstream from the accident.  Using dry suits and underwater communications in the cold and swift water, the body of Phillip Joel Kranz was found by divers 300 yards downstream in 10 feet of water.  2001-1125-06

 May 3, 2001 - When an 18 year old Seguin man failed to properly set the parking brake on his 1995 Ford Mustang, the vehicle travels down a boat ramp and into the Guadalulpe River in the Glen Cove residential subdivision.  SMART is called to recover the vehicle and divers discover the current has taken the car 150 feet downstream from the entry point.  Investigation determines the incident was accidental.  See photographs in our Photo Gallery's Recovery Operations section.  2001-0503-04

April 7, 2001 - SMART takes home two awards for most bottles, and most unusual item, at the 20th annual Spring San Marcos River Clean Up sponsored by the Dive Shop and City Park & Rec department.  A record breaking 1214 bottles were recovered by the team and SMART also recovered a large refrigerator.  The refrigerator took the prize for the most unusual item, narrowly beating out a VCR containing a VHS tape of the Blair Witch Project recovered by another group.  See photographs in our Photo Gallery's Recovery Operations section. 2001-0407-03

April 1, 2001 - 32 year old Austin man is reported missing after dark while swimming at the Martindale Dam in Guadalupe County.  Martindale firefighters and a STAR Flight helicopter are deployed to search the area with the FLIR (Forward Looking InfraRed) and along the San Marcos river.  SMART is notified and begins the underwater search at 8AM next morning.  After thoroughly searching the large target area below the dam for six hours, the conclusion is reach that the missing man has traveled downstream in the strong currents.  At 2:00PM a downstream search along the river banks is initiated with Texas game wardens deploying Kayaks in the river.  At 2:30PM the body of Thomas Daugherty is found in a debris field near FM 1979, about 1.5 miles downstream from the initial search area.  See photographs in our Photo Gallery's Recovery Operations section. 2001-0401-02

February 25, 2001 - The City of San Marcos Park & Recreation Division asked for SMART Divers help in repairing some dangerous holes in the Rio Vista Dam.  Last year a young girl got her foot caught in one of the holes and she broke her foot.  SMART surveyed the dam and built a temporary dam to divert water away from the main flow.  Using quick dry cement specially designed for dam repairs, the holes were filled and tooled to leave a smooth surface.  2001-0225-01.  See our Photo Gallery's Recovery Operations section for a picture of the dam repair in progress.

© 2004 San Marcos Area Recovery Team