Accident Database

Report ID# 2049

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Accident Description

http://www.kodiakdailymirror.com/?pid=19&id=3391

Boy drowns rafting Russian Creek Thursday night

Fri, July 14th, 2006

By BRYAN MARTIN Mirror Writer

A 5-year-old boy drowned late last night in Russian Creek after the raft he was in overturned in cold, deep water filled with underbrush that tangled him below the surface. Alaska State Troopers said the rafting group consisted of two adults and four children. All four children were wearing life jackets. The two adults and three children were able to get safely to the river's banks without harm after attempting to find 5-year-old Taylor Evans.

The boy was not found until about three hours after calls were put in for help. Rescue workers and volunteers using spotlights with helicopters overhead attempted to find the boy. About 25 rescuers from the Alaska State Troopers, the U.S. Coast Guard, Kodiak Island Search and Rescue and the Womens Bay Volunteer Fire Department were dispatched to the location. Tim DeSpain, trooper spokesman in Anchorage, said the names of the parents were not immediately available. Steve Wielebski, president of Kodiak Island Search and Rescue, said the raft was one mile upstream from the Russian Creek Bridge on the Chiniak Highway at Mile 10. Wielebski said the accident occurred about 10 p.m. The boy was pulled from the water by a U.S. Coast Guard rescue swimmer about 1 a.m. Wielebski said rescue workers attempted to locate the boy with searchlights as the early morning wore on, but that the boy was finally found after his feet were spotted protruding from the water. Wielebski said the water there is about 6-feet deep and swift. He said the boy was entangled in branches and brush beneath the surface.

Rescuers pulled him from the water "close to where the raft overturned." "He had gotten swept underneath in an eddy and a bunch of branches that held him down," Wielebski said. A state trooper report said the raft hit an embankment along the river, flipping the raft over and knocking the occupants off the raft in a strong current. After the victim was located by rescue swimmers, resuscitation efforts failed and the boy was transported to Providence Kodiak Island Medical Center. "The adults and other kids were OK. There are some places in the river where you can jump out and get on the bank," Wielebski said. "The water pools were over the heads of the swimmers. It was pretty treacherous with water 40 degrees or below," he said.

Lt. Greg Torgersen, operations duty officer with the Coast Guard Air Station, said the children had life jackets on but the swift water and cold still posed dangerous conditions. "Even though the days are sunny and calm, the rivers are still deep and cold, making it important to take necessary precautions," he said.

Mirror writer Bryan Martin can be reached via e-mail at bmartin@kodiakdailymirror.com.

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