UPDATE: The boat was recovered on May 30 and investigators hope the salvagedwreck will help them determine how the boat struck a piling on the Glenn Jackson Bridge.
PORTLAND, Ore. -- A woman died after a boat traveling at high speed struck a pylon on the north end of the I-205 Glenn Jackson Bridge the night of May 22, according to the Multnomah County sheriff's office.
Investigators said speed and water conditions were likely factors in the crash.
The woman, later identified as 46-year-old Heidi Knight of Wilsonville, was taken to Southwest Washington Medical Center where she died. The man operating the boat, 55-year-old Steven Schalk of Milwaukie, was taken to an unspecified Vancouver hospital for non-life threatening injuries.
Good Samaritans who witnessed the crash used their own boat to pull Knight and Schalk out of the water and bring them to shore. They started CPR on Knight until rescue crews arrived around 8:15 p.m.
Neither person was wearing a life jacket. The boat sank quickly and has not been recovered, deputies said.
