Oakland Woman Killed In Lake Tahoe Snowboarding Accident
LAKE TAHOE (BCN) -- An Oakland woman was killed in a snowboarding accident at a Lake Tahoe resort on Saturday, authorities said Tuesday.
Rahsheka Keith, 22, died when she crashed into a ski lift tower around 3 p.m. Saturday at the Granlibakken Resort, located on Lake Tahoe's western shore, Placer County sheriff's Capt. Jeff Ausnow said.
Keith was snowboarding at the resort with friends when she apparently decided to sit on her snowboard and ride it like a sled instead of strapping it to her feet, Ausnow said.
At some point while going down the mountain, she got turned around and was facing backwards. Investigators do not know if that was on purpose or by mistake, Ausnow said.
She struck the lift tower and was pronounced dead at the scene, he said.
It appears the cause of death was blunt force trauma, but the official cause will not be released until an autopsy is performed later this week, he said.
Keith was a student at the University of California, Santa Cruz from 2006 to spring 2010 and majored in psychology, university spokesman Jim Burns said.
She was involved with College Ten, a program on the UCSC campus that focuses on social justice and community involvement, Burns said.
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