Accident Database

Report ID# 116049

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  • Caught in Low Head Dam Hydraulic
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  • Solo Paddling

Accident Description

 

Searchers recover body of man who fell from canoe into Missouri River

Kim Bell

May 18, 2022 

ST LOUIS COUNTY — Searchers have recovered the body of a man whose canoe capsized Sunday night in the Missouri River. Crews with the Monarch Fire Protection District spotted the body of Caleb Gage about 7:30 a.m. Wednesday, said Cpl. Dallas Thompson of the Missouri Highway Patrol.

The body was about 100 yards from a low-head dam near Howell Island Conservation Area where the canoe capsized. Authorities had gone over that very area in grid searches using sonar equipment on Monday and Tuesday, but apparently the victim resurfaced to be visible Wednesday morning, Thompson added.

Caleb Gage, 32, was from Ballwin. Gage was the father of a 4-year-old girl, said a friend, Andrea Voskuil. Gage was on a canoe trip with a friend when the canoe capsized near Howell Island on Sunday night. A fisherman saw the men in the water sometime around 8:30 p.m., one trying to help the other, and called 911. The friend made it to shore alive. 

Gage had no life jacket and was last seen clinging to a seat cushion, Thompson said. The patrol's report said Gage was operating a canoe too closely to a low-head dam, causing it to overturn. The report does not mention the second occupant, the man who swam to shore. Monarch Fire Protection District crews picked the survivor up from Howell Island on Sunday night and said he was uninjured.

Gage's friends on Tuesday circulated messages on social media among hiking, boating and fishing groups to ask for help searching the riverbanks for him. The message included a photo taken of Gage and his friend in the canoe before the accident.

Low-head dams can be dangerous, while looking tranquil. In fact, the Department of Natural Resources in Iowa refers to them as "drowning machines." Experts say they pose hazards to recreationalists who aren't aware of the recirculating currents that can trap them.

According to a safety brochure by the Association of Dam Safety Officials and the American Society of Civil Engineers, the currents' forces "are nearly inescapable for even the strongest, life-jacket-clad swimmer, boats, and kayaks," and some rescuers and first responders have died "trying to save others caught in the hydraulic current."

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