Denny Rehberg Accident Photo Featured On Boating Safety Poster

Denny Rehberg Becomes Poster Child For Boating Safety

Rep. Denny Rehberg, the Republican congressman running for U.S. Senate in Montana, has apparently become something of a poster child for boating safety. And not in a good way.

Rehberg was one of several people injured in a 2009 boating wreck when the speedboat he was riding in, which was being driven by then-state Sen. Greg Barkus, slammed into the rocky shore of a lake near Bigfork, Mont. Rehberg suffered a broken ankle and ribs, and an aide was in a coma for more than a week.

Barkus was found to have had a .16 blood-alcohol level. He pleaded no contest to a charge of felony criminal endangerment, and was sentenced early last year to a 4-year deferred prison sentence and $29,000 in fines.

The startling photo of the wreck, with the boat entirely out of the water, made most local papers. And now, it's the feature photo of a boating safety campaign in Montana. A tipster emailed the below photo to HuffPost Wednesday, snapped in a local cafe.

rehbergboatcrash

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story misnamed the town near the site of Rep. Rehberg's boating accident. It is Bigfork, Mont.

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