Posted by cheryl
on 11/10/2008, 8:42 am
Message modified by board administrator 11/11/2008, 3:48 pm
Article in today's Woonsocket Call.
Boy who died in river identified
on 11-10-2008 21:48
By JOSEPH B. NADEAU
CUMBERLAND Police yesterday identified the 17-year-old victim of a tragic
canoeing accident on the Blackstone River as William King IV of Crowell
Street, a 2008 graduate of the high school and a student at the Community
College of Rhode Island.
King had been canoeing with his father, William King III, 49, near Pratt Dam
in Valley Falls Sunday afternoon when their boat became lodged against trees
and other debris near five tube-like openings running under a Blackstone
River Bikeway bridge at the site and overturned, according to Cumberland
Police Sgt. Mark England.
The elder King passed through one of the five tube-like concrete and stone
structures but his son, entangled in a rope attached to the canoe, became
trapped inside another as the boat wedged across the openings, England said.
³His foot was entangled and he couldnıt break free,² England said. The youth
was wearing a life jacket, but the force of the water tore it off as he was
held head down in the tube.
An autopsy conducted by the state Medical Examiner on Monday found King to
have died of asphyxiation related to him being trapped under water in the
swiftly moving current, according to England, one of the local officers
responding to accident with area rescue teams.
England said Kingıs leg was found to be firmly entangled in the rope and it
is believed the cold of the water and its force, combined with injuries from
the capsize prevented the boy from freeing himself.
The river takes several routes through the Pratt Dam area and the one the
canoe entered had a swift current that may have been heightened by rains the
day before, England said. The bikeway bridge was once part of a railroad
trestle through the area.
Police responding to a 911 call at 12:20 p.m. assisted the father out of the
downstream flow of the river and had to restrain the distraught man from
attempts to re-enter the water, England said.
Rescue crews from Cumberland put a boat below the dam but were not able to
make it up against the current to location where the boy was trapped.
³All efforts were futile. With the water running that high there was just no
way to get to the boy,² he said. Local rescue personnel were assisted by
units from Lincoln, Woonsocket and North Smithfield in the effort. A large
metal plate was eventually lowered by a crane over the tube intake and the
body removed at about 4 p.m.
The elder King, who had suffered hypothermia while in the water, was taken
to Memorial Hospital in Pawtucket for treatment, England said.
Lauren Doherty- WJAR
Published: November 9, 2008
CUMBERLAND, R.I. - Rescue crews recovered the body of a 17-year-old boy Sunday who drowned while canoeing with his father.
The name of the victim and his father have not been released but police said they are from Cumberland.
Rescue officials said the boy and his father were traveling down the Blackstone River near the Pratt Dam when their canoe capsized at the dam.
The two became trapped in a tube that carries water underneath the pedestrian bridge at the dam, Valley Falls Fire Chief Brian Jackvony told NBC 10.
The father was able to get out of the tube and was transported to Memorial Hospital, but his son remained trapped for several hours.
Rescue crews had trouble getting to the location due to the strong current of the river.
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