Accident Database

Report ID# 16367

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Accident Description

 

 

Kayaker drowns in Plain

 
  Aug. 29, 2017, 4:58 p.m.
 
PLAIN — A kayaker drowned Tuesday afternoon in Plain after falling out of a kayak on the Wenatchee River. Sgt. Kent Sisson with Chelan County Emergency Management said a woman sitting on the river bank south of the Chapel Drive bridge spotted a man swimming in the river after his kayak.
The kayaker appeared to be struggling so the woman ran up a long embankment to her home and called 911 at 1:23 p.m., Sisson said.

UPDATE: Drowned kayaker ID’d as Florida resident

Aug. 30, 2017, 12:48 p.m.
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Updated, 12:50 p.m. Wednesday:

PLAIN — Authorities identified the kayaker who drowned Tuesday afternoon on the Wenatchee River in Plain as 61-year-old Michael R. Lawrance of Hollywood, Florida, according to a press release from the Chelan County Sheriff's Office.

Lawrance was seen struggling to swim after a kayak around 1:23 p.m. Tuesday south of the Chapel Drive bridge in Plain.

Responders recovered him at the bottom of the river in 5-foot deep water, said Sgt. Kent Sisson with Chelan County…

 

Man drowns while kayaking on Wenatchee River

WENATCHEE, Wash. - One man is dead after getting separated from his kayak and drowning in the Wenatchee River Tuesday afternoon. A 911 call was made around 1:25 p.m. from a witness on the eastern bank of the river who noticed an empty kayak floating on the river. The witness saw a man in the water behind the kayak and stated it appeared he was trying to catch up to the kayak. After making the phone call, the witness lost sight of the man in the river but could still see the kayak floating downriver unoccupied.
 
Personnel from Chelan County Fire District #9, Cascade EMS, and the Chelan County Sheriff's Office responded to the area to attempt to locate the missing man.   At 2:39 p.m. a member of the water rescue team saw the man at the bottom of the river in approximately five feet of water. He was pulled from the river to the west shoreline and was administered CPR. However, he was declared dead.
 
The victim, who was 61-years-old, was not wearing a life jacket. It is not known how he was separated from his kayak. Friends of the victim contacted the Sheriff's deputies at the scene upon realizing he was well overdue floating from the old bridge of Chapel Road in Plain to a property along Meachum Road, a distance of nearly two miles.
 
The name of the victim is being withheld at this time as Sheriff's Office and Chelan County Coroner attempt to locate next of kin out of state.
 
 

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