A 70-year-old woman from Austin died Wednesday morning after she went underwater while diving in the San Marcos River at Rio Vista Park in San Marcos. First responders pulled her from the water and performed CPR, but she was later pronounced dead at a local hospital.
According to KVUE, dispatchers received the emergency call at 9:48 a.m. Wednesday reporting the incident at Rio Vista Park, and the woman was pronounced dead at CHRISTUS Santa Rosa Hospital after responders’ CPR efforts could not revive her.
Independent Confirmation From Campus Media
The University Star, the student newspaper at Texas State University, independently confirmed the woman’s age and the underwater dive that preceded her death, reporting she was pronounced dead Wednesday morning, according to The University Star. Rio Vista Park sits directly along the San Marcos River adjacent to the university’s campus.
Rio Vista Park is also home to Rio Vista Falls, a set of three man-made whitewater rapids and chutes built from a re-engineered dam site, and the structures generate swift currents, deep drop-offs and undertows that draw kayakers and swimmers, according to the City of San Marcos. The city also enforces a single-use beverage container ban along this stretch of river, barring disposable cans, glass and Styrofoam to keep sharp debris out of swimming zones.
Constant Springs, No Lifeguards On Duty
The San Marcos River originates at Spring Lake and stays at roughly 72 degrees year-round, fed by more than 200 underwater spring openings tied to the Edwards Aquifer, per the San Marcos River Foundation. That steady temperature is part of why the river draws swimmers and divers throughout the year, even as currents shift around the falls’ man-made drops…