TWO WORKERS SURVIVE FALL INTO ICY RIVER

CAPE GIRARDEAU -- Two employees of Consolidated Grain & Barge Company's Cape Girardeau marine terminal survived an icy plunge into the Mississippi River Friday.

A spokesperson for Southeast Missouri Hospital said Bobby Griffith, 30, of Whitewater, and Gary Brown, 38, of Cape Girardeau, were treated for effects of hypothermia and released.

Two men were working on an empty grain barge being loaded with grain when the accident occurred at about 9:30 a.m.

John Sutton, manager of the CG&B facility, located at the foot of LaCruz Street in south Cape Girardeau, said Griffith apparently slipped on a patch of ice on the deck of the barge and fell overboard into the ice-covered river.

Sutton said Brown quickly realized what had happened and called for help from other CG&B employees on the riverbank and in the grain elevator office.

Sutton said when Brown tried to help Griffith, his (Brown) leg became entangled in the rope holding the barge to the grain dock. "Gary had to let go of the rope and drop into the river, or his leg might have been crushed on the side of the barge," Sutton said.

By this time, workers on the bank were able to throw life preservers to the two men and pull them to shore.

Griffith was carried to the elevator office where he was treated at the scene for hypothermia by Cape fire department paramedics until paramedics from the Cape County Private Ambulance Service arrived. Officials said Griffith was probably in the icy water for at least 10 minutes.

Sutton said Brown, who was in the water for less than five minutes, was transferred from the shore to the deck of the Missouri Barge Lines fleet tug, the Curtis Moore, and taken to the Missouri Drydock and Repair Company's lower dry dock, where he was put into a waiting ambulance.

"We were afraid Gary had a broken leg, so the safest thing to do was to put him on board the fleet tug instead trying to carry him from the barge back to the shore," Sutton said.

Both men were wearing their personal flotation device work vests when they fell into the river.