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Man drowns trying to retrieve toy boat from South Lubbock retention pond
Posted: August 13, 2010 - 4:42pm
Avalanche-Journal
One man drowned while trying to retrieve a toy boat Friday afternoon in a South Lubbock retention pond.

Emergency crews responded to the reported drowning about 1:50 p.m. Friday at Leroy Elmore Park near the 6600 block of Quaker Avenue, said Lubbock police Lt. Neal Barron.

They found 33-year-old Juan Antonio Rosales of Lubbock still alive and pulled out of the water.

“It looks like he went into the water to try to get a toy boat that was out on one of the islands in the lake,” Barron said.

Rosales was taken to University Medical Center by ambulance and was pronounced dead at the hospital, Barron said. UMC officials said Rosales likely was dead before arriving to the hospital.

Barron said police were not investigating the drowning as a suspicious death.

Police still were investigating the drowning Friday.

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Man trying to retrieve toy boat drowns in Ariz. lake

by Kyle Daly - Jul. 6, 2010 01:38 PM
The Arizona Republic

A California man drowned in a lake north of Prescott while trying to retrieve a remote-control boat, authorities said.

Witnesses told investigators that Robert Dietrich, 47, began to struggle when he went into Watson Lake on Friday.

Don Devendorf of the Prescott Fire Department said Dietrich was standing near a boat launch and controlling a water toy by remote when the toy became entangled in weeds. Dietrich's sister watched on shore as he waded into the water to retrieve the toy.

Dietrich was 20 to 30 yards into the water, at a depth of about 4 feet, when he began to struggle, Devendorf said, adding that others had described the man as a "weak" swimmer.

The sister and a bystander tried to help Dietrich, but both were unskilled swimmers themselves, Devendorf said. Dietrich's unconscious body was finally pulled on shore when fire officials arrived, and CPR was performed.

Dietrich was later pronounced dead at Yavapai Regional Medical Center West.

Cynthia Ross of the Yavapai County Medical Examiner Office confirmed that Dietrich drowned, adding that he had a heart condition that contributed to his death.

According to police, Dietrich was in Arizona visiting family.

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Father and son drown in Lakewood pond while operating toy boat
Published: Wednesday, May 19, 2010, 6:07 AM Updated: Wednesday, May 19, 2010, 7:17 AM
By The Associated Press

LAKEWOOD Investigators said a man and his teenage son apparently drowned while playing with a remote control boat at an Ocean County fishing pond.
But it's still not clear how Mark Volz and his 17-year-old son, Mark Jr., ended up in the water on Monday afternoon.
The Toms River residents were last seen operating the four- to five-foot boat around 4:30 p.m. at the edge of the pond here.
Nearly two hours later, a passer-by saw the boat bobbing in the water and noticed an empty pickup truck nearby, along with a fishing pole, boats, wallet and keys in the grass. The passer-by called the police, and the bodies were found a short time later.
Family members declined to comment on the accident.

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Man dies after trying to retrieve toy boat
By Neil Horner - Parksville Qualicum Beach News

Published: February 17, 2010 1:00 PM
Updated: February 17, 2010 2:58 PM

A 56-year-old Parksville man is dead after a family outing turned tragic.

Police report the man, Francis James Chapman, tried to retrieve a remote controlled toy motorboat he and his family were playing with on Cameron Lake Sunday afternoon.

RCMP spokesperson Const. Gary O’Brien said Chapman swam approximately 50 metres in the frigid water to the boat and during his return to shore he was seen gasping for breath and appeared to be in considerable distress.

Chapman soon lost consciousness and his wife and brother managed to bring him to shore and quickly began CPR. Others began to seek help.

“They were frantically waving to people and they managed to catch the eye of several cars that went by,” O’Brien said. “One of them had a second year medical student.”

Despite the assistance of the student, who took over CPR compressions until ambulance paramedics arrived, Chapman could not be revived.

O’Brien confirmed the man had a pre-existing health condition but would not elaborate.

Chapman was pronounced dead at the scene by the attending Coroner.

The Oceanside RCMP and BC Coroners Service are jointly investigating the incident. Anyone with information on this incident is asked to contact the Oceanside RCMP at 250-248-6111.
http://www.bclocalnews.com/news/84624127.html

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Virginia Man Drowns Retrieving Toy Boat

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — Authorities say a man who drowned in a lake at Virginia Beach's Mount Trashmore Tuesday went under while trying to retrieve a toy boat that had gotten stuck in the water.

Police identified the victim as 31-year-old Frank Perez of Virginia Beach. His body was retrieved from the lake around 1:15 a.m. Wednesday.

Witnesses tell police he went into the lake around 8 p.m. Tuesday trying to retrieve a motorized toy boat. Police say at least one person tried to rescue him and another called 911 when he didn't resurface.

Boat and dive teams searched for the man but were unsuccessful.

Mount Trashmore is a landfill that has been converted to a park.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,356903,00.html

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Christmas Day Drowning linked to toy boat

Full story: Sacramento Bee
Published December 26, 2006 Story appeared in METRO section, Page B1 A young man drowned in West Sacramento on Christmas Day after he swam into a subdivision lake to fetch a toy boat...

(Unfortunately the archive for the remainder of the story was unavailable)

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6/2006 (Translation)
10 year-old boy killed by R/C boat
QUEBRADILLAS - A boy of 10 years of age, identified like Jonathan Perez Valle, who enjoyed pasadía in the mouth of the Guajataca river, tragically died yesterday when a boat of remote control - of 3 feet of length which they practically handled to two young people in the area him “he nailed” in the chest, due to the high speed at which he moved on the water. Jonathan enjoyed, in the middle of these “unavoidable vacations” due to the fiscal crisis, next to their father Juan Perez Lugo and their uncle Eriberto Valle the Perez, who managed to transfer it to the hospital, where later passed away. The captain Manuel Portalatín Mercado, head of the CIC in this zone, said that the fatal accident reported last the 3:15 of afternoon and that both suspicious of the facts, although tried to escape, were arrested by the Police. In agreement with the investigation made by the lieutenant Miguel Vélez, director of the Unit of Homicides of Aguadilla, the boy, who resided in the district San Antonio, sector Property in Quebradillas, underwent a deep wound in the chest when the boat of remote control was nailed in the torácica part of its body. At the time of the accident, the father and the uncle of the minor were bathing in the playera area of the place, although they supervised to the boy, who was near them. In afternoon of the both lengthy agents they investigated the case whereas yesterday hoped by the determination of the public prosecutor of turn to decide if would be to him positions.

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5/2006
A man drowned in Hialeah, trying to save a remote control boat
By ANDREA TORRES - atorres@MiamiHerald.com


A 31-year-old man drowned Monday evening as he attempted to rescue a motorized, remote control boat in a lake at Hialeah's Amelia Earhart Park, 401 East 65th St.

The man was using a raft to paddle into the middle of the lake to get the disabled boat, but the other boats didn't stop the race. One accidentally rammed the raft, puncturing it and causing it to deflate, said Jesse Casales, a spokesman for Miami-Dade Fire Rescue.

The man did not know how to swim, Casales said.

A few friends jumped in to rescue him, to no avail, as his fiancée and the man's baby daughter looked on.

Divers recovered the man's body Monday night. His identity has not been released
News video - http://cbs4.com/video/?id=18099@wfor.dayport.com&cid=5

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Model Boat Enthusiast Drowns at Lake Piru
The Regional Review | DEVELOPMENTS IN ORANGE, RIVERSIDE, SAN BERNARDINO AND VENTURA COUNTI
ES
September 07, 2000
The skies were sunny and the winds calm at Lake Piru, when Eric Cruz decided to swim the short distance to his stalled radio-controlled model boat.

But the inexperienced swimmer struggled just short of the boat and panicked, witnesses said, pushing away his boogie board. Divers retrieved his body an hour later.

The 25-year-old Van Nuys resident had drowned only 10 feet from shore.

Cruz, whose body was found on the floor of the lake Tuesday afternoon, was the sixth person to drown there since 1994.

Douglas West, Lake Piru's parks and recreation services manager, said he has seen about a dozen drownings during his 23 years at the lake. Most victims are inexperienced swimmers who are not wearing life jackets and who overestimate their own abilities or swim in off-limits areas.

Sheriff's spokesman Eric Nishimoto said currents on the lake were strong Tuesday. After a 1997 drowning, park officials speculated that wind gusts and deep columns of chilly water on the lake, which is 70 to 160 feet deep depending on the time of year, can overtake swimmers quickly and overwhelm them.

"I know it can get rough out there," Nishimoto said.

Cruz was far from from the view of park rangers, in an area marked off-limits to swimming.

After a drowning, park officials meet to discuss the situation and determine what can be done to improve their response.

On Wednesday, they came to the conclusion that Cruz's drowning could have been prevented if he had worn a life jacket or other flotation device.

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Man Who Drowned While Retrieving Toy Boat Identified
November 07, 1991
SANTA ANA — A young man who drowned when he tried to retrieve a toy boat from a lake for a $10 reward was identified Wednesday as 20-year-old Gerado Navarette, police said.

Navarette's family identified him, the coroner's office said Wednesday. An autopsy is pending.

Navarette, a resident of Santa Ana, regularly biked through the paths of Centennial Regional Park, said frequent park-goers. On Monday morning, while at the park, he apparently overheard a conversation between two people about a remote-controlled boat that had floundered in the lake.

The boat's owner, Joseph R. Smith, 31, of Los Angeles, offered a friend $10 to retrieve the boat, said Smith's wife, Laura, after the accident. The offer was made half in jest, she added.

Police said that Navarette either overheard the offer or was told about it, and he jumped into the lake and began swimming toward the boat. As he reached it, he started to sink in the cold water.

Smith tried to help Navarette, but had to be rescued himself.

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Old article from 1912 - http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=F10E12FA3E5813738DDDAD0994DD405B828DF1D3

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ORIGINAL: Deathwish

The one that say's ''The man was using a raft to paddle into the middle of the lake to get the disabled boat, but the other boats didn't stop the race. One accidentally rammed the raft, puncturing it and causing it to deflate, said Jesse Casales, a spokesman for Miami-Dade Fire Rescue. '' the people who was hosting this event should of stopped the race so the boat can be retrieved or have the guy wait it out before going out to get it. If i was the family i would sue.

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LAKEWOOD — A father and son playing with a remote-controlled boat on a popular fishing pond drowned Monday, as one appeared to try to save the other, police said.

Mark Volz, 47, and his son, Mark Jr., 17, both from Toms River, were last seen about 4:30 p.m. operating the red 4 to 5-foot boat from the banks of a retention pond off Cedar Bridge Avenue in the industrial campus, according to police.

At 6 p.m., a man driving to the post office saw the boat capsized and bobbing unmanned in the water, police said. Ten minutes later, he again passed the pond, this time stopping behind the Volzes' green pickup truck, parked with its door open on the shoulder of Vassar Avenue. Concerned, the man called the police, who arrived to find nothing but a fishing pole, boots, wallet and a set of keys in the grass.

A diving team was called from Brick. In three minutes, they recovered the father's body some 40 feet from shore, in eight to 10 feet of water. An hour later and 75 feet further out, Volz Jr. was found. Both were declared dead by a medical examiner at the scene.

It isn't clear what happened. One possible scenario, police said, was that one attempted to wade out to retrieve or right the boat, began to struggle and the other entered the water to try to rescue him.

"The bottom of the pond is heavy with weeds and muck," Lt. William Addison said. "Probably one got in the water and the other tried a rescue."

Police are treating the tragedy as an accident while an autopsy is performed.

The family, when reached by phone Tuesday, declined to comment.

Throughout the day, offers of condolence poured from Internet message boards as friends and family members came to grips with the sudden death of a teenager known for his "big heart" and a father remembered as "a real gentleman" who shared with his son a hobby that evening that they enjoyed "so much."

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On July 2, 2010 at about 6:05 PM, 47-year old California resident Richard S. Dietrich died after trying to retrieve a remote control boat from Watson Lake near the boat ramp.

Mr. Dietrich was visiting family in Prescott and he and several members of his family were spending time at the lake. According to witnesses Mr. Dietrich went into the lake to retrieve the boat and began to struggle.

Members of his family and others in the area pulled him from the lake and performed CPR. Prescott Fire Department responded and continued the lifesaving efforts.

Dietrich was transported to Yavapai Regional Medical Center West where he was pronounced deceased a short time after his arrival.

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LUBBOCK, TX (KCBD) - Bystanders, police and EMS did everything they could to save a man Friday afternoon in Leroy Elmore Park. In the end, they could not save him.

Police quote eyewitnesses as saying the man went into the playa lake at Leroy Elmore Park. He was trying to help a boy recover a remote controlled boat just before 2 p.m. He began to struggle and call for help.

It is not clear if he made it back on shore himself or if he was pulled out of the water. Paramedics did CPR on the man and took him to University Medical Center where he was pronounced dead. Witnesses also say that it appeared that the man was having a heart attack.

UMC is treating it as a drowning case. Lubbock Police have not yet released his name.

KCBD NewsChannel 11 is following this story and will bring you the latest as it becomes available