Accident Database

Report ID#69607

2016-08-24
accident date
Edward J. Williams
victim
74
victim age
Winchester Wasteway
river
n/a
section
south of Ephrata, WA
location
n/a
gage
n/a
water level
N/A
river difficulty
Caught in Low Head Dam Hydraulic
cause code(s)
Does not Apply
injury type(s)
Other
factors
Private
trip type
Other
boat type
status?
status

Description

EPHRATA — The Grant County Sheriff’s Office has released the identity of an Everett man who died over the weekend while canoeing south of Ephrata. Edward J. Williams was paddling with a Boy Scout troop on the Winchester Wasteway on Sunday when they came to a low dam and waterfall. The sheriff’s office says that as the group was discussing how to get past the dam, the 74-year-old Williams decided to take an empty canoe and go over it. He fell overboard as the canoe plunged over the falls. The canoe was sucked up against the falls, and when Williams tried to retrieve it he went under and lost his life jacket. The Boy Scouts retrieved him from the water and began CPR, but he was pronounced dead at Columbia Basin Hospital. TEXT ATTACHMENTS http://www.heraldnet.com/news/everett-man-dies-canoeing-with-boy-scouts-in-grant-county/