Ada coroner identifies man who drowned while floating the Boise River

A man from Arizona has been identified as Monday’s Boise River drowning victim.

The Ada County Coroner’s Office said Wednesday that Clinton Bieschke, 34, of Phoenix, was pronounced dead at Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center in Boise at 6:52 p.m. Monday.

According to the coroner’s release and an earlier Boise Police Department release, Bieschke was submerged in the river near 9th Street after his tube got caught on a tree, causing him to go under the water.

Friends who had been floating with Bieschke were giving him CPR when police arrived at the river just after 5:30 p.m. Boise Fire and paramedics arrived and transported his to Saint Al’s.

The coroner listed Bieschke’s cause of death as drowning and manner of death as an accident.

Every year, there are 4,000 drowning deaths in the United States. Idaho has a rate of 1.71 deaths per 100,000 people, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This means about 34 people die per year in drownings in Idaho.