Boat may have hit submerged rocks

The Daily Inter Lake

Flathead County Sheriff's Office investigators have been granted a warrant to search the boat that state Sen. Greg Barkus, R-Kalispell, was piloting when it crashed last Thursday into the shore of Flathead Lake, injuring five people.

The 22-foot boat is being held in a secure county facility and is expected to be inventoried by Wednesday, Sheriff Mike Meehan said.

Authorities also have drafted an administrative subpoena to obtain a blood sample taken from Barkus while he was being treated after the crash at Kalispell Regional Medical Center, according to Deputy Flathead County Attorney Caleb Simpson.

Simpson said Tuesday that it appears the boat, which was approaching land at an oblique angle, hit some submerged rocks immediately off the shore before pitching up onto the bank some distance north of the initial collision. The boat then slid a little way back toward the water but came to rest a few feet above the lake.

All five people on board were injured: Barkus and his wife, Kathy, and U.S. Rep. Denny Rehberg and two of his staffers.

Greg Barkus and Rehberg state director Dustin Frost remain hospitalized. Rehberg, Kathy Barkus and Kristen Smith, Rehberg's deputy chief of staff, were released from the hospital on Monday.

Frost suffered a serious brain injury.

Investigators have yet to be allowed to interview Barkus.

For more on this story, read Wednesday's Daily Inter Lake.