Injured woman drowns under rescue boat

New craft capsized on the Conn. River

August 24, 2006|Associated Press

CHARLESTOWN, N.H. -- A rescue boat crew made several unsuccessful attempts to free an injured woman when their boat capsized on the Connecticut River yesterday, authorities said. The woman was trapped underneath and drowned.

Virginia Yates, 64, of Rockingham, Vt., was stepping on a dock when she slipped Tuesday, injured her head, and fell into the river, said Sergeant Craig Morrocco of the Fish and Game Department.

A fire and rescue crew from Cornish brought Yates onto their brand-new, flat-bottomed airboat and strapped her onto a backboard. But as the boat headed to a waiting ambulance at a landing, it started taking on water and capsized, Morrocco said.

``She was strapped to the backboard, and she was strapped into a gurney," a standard precautionary measure, said Sullivan County Attorney Marc Hathaway.

The crew made several attempts to save Yates, officials said yesterday. The crew members were rescued by a passing boat, and Yates's body was recovered an hour later.

The boat remained stuck in the mud at the bottom of the river yesterday. Divers will try to dislodge it today.

Officials said Yates was conscious when the rescue boat arrived at the dock.

Five people were on board the boat when it sank. Officials say the circumstances surrounding the sinking of the boat are under investigation.

Yates's friends said they don't know why she needed to be strapped in.

``Why would you take a 64-year-old lady that's got a little bump on the head and a strained ankle and strap her into a situation where if there was an accident, she couldn't get out?" said her friend Tracy Snide.

Edgar Emerson of Bellows Falls, Vt., said he and Yates were on their way to visit friends when she slipped getting out of his pontoon boat and onto a dock on the Vermont side of the river.

Emerson said people persuaded him to call 911. ``She didn't want to go in the ambulance. She didn't want to be rescued," he told the Rutland (Vt.) Herald.