DROWNING VICTIM IDENTIFIED By Emily Jo Cureton Triplicate staff writer A 57-year-old Santa Rosa man died in the Smith River near Jedediah Smith Campground on Saturday morning after swift water swamped his drift boat and sent him into the icy current. A bystander pulled Jay Eugene Jackson from the river minutes later, but it was too late. Two Redwood National Park Rangers administered CPR for 45 minutes before Jackson was pronounced dead at the scene by emergency responders, according to parks officials. While drowning is a likely possibility, the Del Norte County coroner has yet to determine how the man died so soon after being tossed from his boat. “He was in a little bit of swift water and apparently his anchor caught on something which caused the bow of the boat to dip close to the waterline. When he moved toward the anchor line, his weight caused the bow to go under the waterline and swamp the boat,” according to Del Norte County Sheriff’s Commander Bill Steven’s summary of an eyewitness account. After the boat swamped, this witness watched helplessly from the shore as Jackson went overboard and shot downriver. He was next seen floating face-down by another witness, who entered the water and managed to pull Jackson to shore near space 15 of the popular Redwood State and National Parks campground. The river was ripping, after heavy rains brought flows up to 13,300 cubic feet per second, or 12.64 feet at 10 a.m. Saturday, when the incident occurred. “My experience with rivers is they are always changing and they change even faster during periods of high flow,” said Redwood National Park Chief Ranger Marshall Neeck. “A place in the river you think normally would be fine and safe, when you throw more water in it, it can change really rapidly, then you don’t know what you are dealing with anymore.”
Posted on: Tue, 02 Dec 2014 01:18:28 +0000
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