Local paddler says that the "word is"that

the victim was not using a PFD

 

Man dies in kayaking accident on river

 

JUN 11, 2018

 

JACOB GURNEY

Staff Writer, Tiffin, OH Journal-Advertiser

 

A Tiffin man died in a kayaking accident on the Sandusky River north of Tiffin Sunday afternoon. Deputy Denny Wilkinson of Seneca County Sheriff’s Office said after the man was rescued from the water, he was taken by Tiffin Fire Rescue Division to Mercy Health — Tiffin Hospital, and he died at the hospital in the emergency room.

The Seneca County Sheriff’s Office identified the man as Carl Henkel Jr., 30, of Tiffin.

Wilkinson said it was reported a kayaker was in trouble and he had put the kayak in at Huss Street. He said the man must have hit a wave, capsized and came out of the kayak. Wilkinson said the man was not alone and had been with a couple of other people.

Chief Kevin Veletean of Tiffin Fire Rescue Division said Tiffin Fire, Clinton Township Volunteer Fire Department and Old Fort Volunteer Fire Department put boats in the water for the rescue. He said the crew from Tiffin Fire Rescue Division was the group that found him and made the rescue. “They removed him out of the water and brought him to shore,” Veletean said. Wilkinson said the man was found near Steyer Nature Preserve.

From the time the boats were in the water, the rescue took about 15 minutes to locate the man and get him into a boat, Veletean said. Once he was found and gotten out of the water, crews started to give emergency care by providing advanced life support, he said.

Veletean said the department’s boat was on the river, near Haack Farms, when they located the man and was able to get him out of the water. Crews then were able to get the boat back upriver about 100 yards to a private lane where crews from Old Fort Volunteer Fire Department met them on shore and helped get them up a lane.

Sgt. Walter Hodgkiss of Ohio Department of Natural Resources said the department was investigating the kayak accident. Further information was not available Sunday.

The incident was reported at 12:10 p.m. and Clinton Township Volunteer Fire Department, Old Fort Volunteer Fire Department, Tiffin Fire Rescue Division, Seneca County Water Rescue Team and North Central EMS responded to the scene.

 

 

Man dies after kayak overturns on Sandusky River

By Michael Bratton | 

Jun 10, 2018  

SENECA COUNTY, Ohio (WTVG) - Firefighters say a man is dead after his kayak overturned on the Sandusky River in Seneca County. Tiffin Fire Chief Kevin Veletean says first responders got the call for a capsized kayak around 12:20 Sunday afternoon. At least five fire and rescue departments from southern Seneca County were called in to help.

Veletean says rescue crews spotted an adult man in the fast flowing river near the intersection of County Roads 38 and 33 just north of Tiffin. Three boats were then dispatched into the river and the man was pulled to safety. First responders rushed the man to Mercy Hospital of Tiffin in critical condition where he later died.

Chief Veletean says two other kayakers were on the water with the unidentified man at the time of the accident. The chief tells 13abc the two other kayakers were rescued on shore safety without injury. The Ohio Department of Natural Resources Watercraft Division along with the Seneca County Sheriff’s Office are assisting in the investigation.

Authorities are withholding the victim’s name until his family is notified.

 

Toledo Blade

 

TIFFIN — Authorities have identified the man who died after capsizing his kayak over the weekend.

Tiffin firefighters pulled the body of Carl Henkel, Jr., 30, of Tiffin out of the Sandusky River about 1 p.m. Sunday. He was spotted near County Road 38 and 33, according to the department.

Mr. Henkel was taken to shore and then Mercy Health Tiffin Hospital, where he later died.