A 70-year-old woman from Austin died Wednesday morning after she went underwater while diving in the San Marcos River at Rio Vista Park in San Marcos. First responders pulled her from the water and performed CPR, but she was later pronounced dead at a local hospital.
According to KVUE, dispatchers received the emergency call at 9:48 a.m. Wednesday reporting the incident at Rio Vista Park, and the woman was pronounced dead at CHRISTUS Santa Rosa Hospital after responders' CPR efforts could not revive her.
Independent Confirmation From Campus Media
The University Star, the student newspaper at Texas State University, independently confirmed the woman's age and the underwater dive that preceded her death, reporting she was pronounced dead Wednesday morning, according to The University Star. Rio Vista Park sits directly along the San Marcos River adjacent to the university's campus.
Rio Vista Park is also home to Rio Vista Falls, a set of three man-made whitewater rapids and chutes built from a re-engineered dam site, and the structures generate swift currents, deep drop-offs and undertows that draw kayakers and swimmers, according to the City of San Marcos. The city also enforces a single-use beverage container ban along this stretch of river, barring disposable cans, glass and Styrofoam to keep sharp debris out of swimming zones.
Constant Springs, No Lifeguards On Duty
The San Marcos River originates at Spring Lake and stays at roughly 72 degrees year-round, fed by more than 200 underwater spring openings tied to the Edwards Aquifer, per the San Marcos River Foundation. That steady temperature is part of why the river draws swimmers and divers throughout the year, even as currents shift around the falls' man-made drops.
San Marcos does not station lifeguards at Rio Vista Park or anywhere along the public stretches of the San Marcos River, running all of its riverfront parks under a swim-at-your-own-risk policy, according to the City of San Marcos. City guidelines advise visitors to wear life jackets given the unmonitored waters, though no lifeguard staff is present to respond if a swimmer or diver runs into trouble.
City Rules Have Targeted Crowds, Not Rescues
In April, San Marcos introduced a $5 managed-access day fee for non-resident adults at Rio Vista Park on summer weekends and holidays, an effort aimed at curbing overcrowding, trash accumulation and safety concerns, as Hoodline detailed in its coverage of San Marcos' new summer river fee. City residents and youths under 18 remain exempt from the charge.
Texas recorded 178 recreational boating incidents and 50 fatalities across its waterways in 2025, with drowning accounting for 70 percent of those deaths and 84 percent of drowning victims not wearing a life jacket, according to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. Under the state's Water Safety Act, children under 13 must wear a U.S. Coast Guard-approved life jacket aboard recreational vessels under 26 feet, but the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department notes that state law sets no such requirement for adult swimmers or tubers.
A Similar Drowning Near The Same Park A Decade Ago
The stretch of river near Rio Vista Park has seen fatal currents before. In July 2015, an 80-year-old former Texas State University professor drowned near Children's Park and Rio Vista Park after leaving his tube to help a relative and getting separated by the current, according to KAGS-TV. Local officials at the time said recent rainfall had increased the river's flow rate.
