Accident Database

Julie Pheasant-Albright - I live about a mile from The Ballard Locks. (I've lived here my entire life.) The person who drowned went over the spillway at the locks which is effectively a low-head dam and an unrecoverable water feature. Despite having marker buoys above it, two kayakers got way too close. One of them hung onto the anchor chain of a buoy. Because of unprecedented flooding in the area, the water going over the spillway was greatly increased from the normal flow.

I'm a whitewater kayaker and the former president of the Washington Kayak Club and to be honest with you, it's terrifying to walk across the steel walkway above it in the low water of summer. When saying they died of cold water exposure you might as well say they died of heart failure due to drowning.