A year ago, a kayaker went over a low dam on the Clinton River north of Detroit and was drowned in the back wash of the "hydraulic" below the dam. Over the last week that accident was replicated, and two other kayakers were killed on the Clinton River. There have been a lot of storms lately; and although southeast Michigan appears to have been bulldozed completely flat by the glaciers of the last ice age, there a number of active rivers and creeks. The Clinton was running high, fast and muddy. The first 2000 fatality was "an experienced kayaker." He and his paddling partner were headed to a bar (a drinking establishment, not a sandbar) via the river when he flipped his boat. No spray skirt or PFD, and he drowned. The second drowning was quite similar to the over-the-dam and trapped accident of exactly one year ago. Again, no PFD. The kayak was trapped on end (bow or stern vertically down) until hoisted out of the backwash at the base of the dam by a fire crew with a ladder truck. The drowned kayaker, was spit out of the "hydraulic" and found downstream. His body showed signs of impact with underwater objects, and he had no helmet. The third drowning happened to a woman, who was wearing a PFD, but got trapped under an underwater obstruction. I don't know if white water type rescue techniques could have mitigated these accidents, but it appears that some "kayak experience" is just waiting for that one telling problem. bob phillips Oxford, MI *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not to be reproduced outside PaddleWise without author's permission Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
> -----Original Message----- > From: Phlopz_at_aol.com [mailto:Phlopz_at_aol.com] > I don't know if white water type rescue techniques could have > mitigated these > accidents, but it appears that some "kayak experience" is > just waiting for > that one telling problem. One thing that was very forcefully drilled into my thick skull as a beginning whitewater paddler was that "low-head" dams are drowning machines. Just because it's only a 12"-36" drop doesn't mean it's safe - just the opposite. A big part of the danger comes from the fact that these things don't look like daunting obstacles. The hydraulics created by these dams can be inescapable. To further the hazard the outflow area on the bottom of many of these dams can have exposed re-bar, steel mesh, broken concrete, etc just waiting to "grab" a struggling, recirculating swimmer. I've "played" in one of these at a low flow level and found the force almost inescapable - the problem lies in the extreme regularity of the flow - there's nowhere to push a bow, stern, or paddle into water flowing in a different direction - you're trapped - and you'd better have a strong side-surf technique or you're going for a nasty, ugly, possibly fatal swim. It's not the kind of situation that lends itself to self-rescue. I don't know whether any of those folks could have been rescued either - but one thing to remember is that any rescue of a victim _in the water_ needs to be executed quickly and in an organized and vigorous fashion - time is measured in seconds when drowning is a risk. Don't create more victims. A good read on the subject of rescues, entrapments, etc can be found in the book "White-water Rescue" by Slim Ray & Les Bechdel. Even better is to take a class or two on the subject - even if you don't paddle WW it will make you a better water-man/woman. Dave Seng Juneau, Alaska *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not to be reproduced outside PaddleWise without author's permission Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
> One thing that was very forcefully drilled into my thick skull as a >beginning whitewater paddler was that "low-head" dams are drowning machines. >Just because it's only a 12"-36" drop doesn't mean it's safe - just the >opposite. A big part of the danger comes from the fact that these things >don't look like daunting obstacles. The hydraulics created by these dams >can be inescapable. To further the hazard the outflow area on the bottom of >many of these dams can have exposed re-bar, steel mesh, broken concrete, etc >just waiting to "grab" a struggling, recirculating swimmer. One Sunday very long ago, a group of us were paddling in inflatables down the Salt River in Arizona. Much more beer drinking than was healthy was part of the usual plan. PFDs? Saw one around a beer cooler once. This is a slow, warm, easy river, except when it isn't. There was a low obstruction underwater, possibly a dike or just prominent rocks, making a condition like a low dam. Or damn. Most of the time you could cruise right through and it was a thrill. This Sunday, it threw my raft end over end and spun me head over heals three times, smacking my head on the concrete or rocks below each time. The third time I managed to kick out and hit something solid and break out, otherwise I probably would have spent eternity there. Complacency is easy to develop. I think I went through that spot without incident 5 or 10 times before getting my head beat in, that day. Some people have to have safety beaten into their thick heads. I know. I got away with some cuts and bruises and $106 for new glasses -- I was luckier than the people in Michigan. jerry. *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not to be reproduced outside PaddleWise without author's permission Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
On Wed, Jul 05, 2000 at 06:39:32PM -0400, Phlopz_at_aol.com wrote: > A year ago, a kayaker went over a low dam on the Clinton River north of > Detroit and was drowned in the back wash of the "hydraulic" below the dam. > > Over the last week that accident was replicated, and two other kayakers were > killed on the Clinton River. I question how "experienced" any of these people were: no PFD? no skirt? Running low-head dams? "Experienced" can mean a lot of different things to different people, and I have difficulty believing that anyone with significant whitewater experience would make such stupid decisions. Does anyone know how long these people had been paddling and on what kinds of rivers? We also had a similar accident in my area recently -- a father and son drowned in the backwash of a dam on Perkiomen Creek outside Philadelphia. This particular one is noted in Ed Gertler's "Keystone Canoeing" (the definitive reference for paddling for much of Pennsylvania) with the following comment: "Take special care to avoid the sloping three-foot dam at the county park below Egypt Road and the rounded three-foot weir just above the mouth. Both have deceptively powerful and potentially lethal rollers." There are multiple lessons to be learned from this by whitewater paddlers: 1. Don't mess with low-head dams. 2. Always wear a PFD. 3. Always wear a helmet. 4. Check the guidebook, local paddlers, etc. for recent info. 5. Don't mess with low-head dams. ---Rsk Rich Kulawiec rsk_at_gsp.org *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not to be reproduced outside PaddleWise without author's permission Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
Dave Seng began his last post, "one thing that was very forcefully drilled into my thick skull as a beginning whitewater paddler was that "low-head" dams are drowning machines." To back this up, the course that Gerry Dworkin teaches on Water Rescue has a really unpleasant amateur video of an incident at a low-head in New England, where a rescue craft approaches a dam to retrieve a PFD lost the day before during an attempted rescue in which a couple of people --- including, if I remember correctly --- a rescue worker. The fire captain was standing in the back of this work boat, one rescue worker kneeling in the bow, and one rescue worker on the controls. It was bow heavy, and inched its way to try to recover the PFD --- what the hell were these people thinking! --- when the boat flipped. You can watch in the video as this maytag just whips the hell out of these three guys, eventually taking two of three. Low-heads are most definitely drowning machines! Jack Martin *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not to be reproduced outside PaddleWise without author's permission Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
>To back this up, the course that Gerry Dworkin teaches on Water Rescue has a really unpleasant amateur video of an incident at a low-head in New England, where a rescue craft approaches a dam to retrieve a PFD lost the day before during an attempted rescue in which a couple of people --- including, if I remember correctly --- a rescue worker IIRC this happened about 10 years ago in Binghamton NY. The rescuers were not trying to retrieve the PFD. They honestly thought that it was a body, possibly still alive. *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not to be reproduced outside PaddleWise without author's permission Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
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