Updated: 5-year old dies in boating mishap
July 31, 2016
Virges France
August 2, 2016
The drowning death of a 5-year-old boy near Bourg is being viewed as a double tragedy by officials who spent all night searching for him, because of his age and because it likely occurred as the result of an attempt by his father to keep him safe.
The death of 5-year-old Ethan Hancock was the second reported in local waterways early Sunday morning.
A Metairie man was killed in the pre-dawn hours during a boating incident near Grand Isle.
Rescuers said that although they are still processing information, there are strong indications that both incidents will result in tragic lessons learned for all boaters, in a community that relies heavily on water for recreation.
Events leading up to the boy’s death began as he and his father, identified as Darrell Hancock of Houma, returned from a frogging trip in a 14-foot mud-boat at around 11:30 p.m. Saturday, near the Company Canal in Bourg.
“Father and son ran out of gas and he attempted to paddle across the Intracoastal,” said Adam Einck, a spokesman for the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries.
As the father paddled, Einck said, he saw a barge being pushed in their direction.
“The tug got close to them and
they jumped in the water. The boy had a life jacket on; the father did not,” Einck said. “The tug boat never made contact with their skiff.”
Investigators theorize that when the pair abandoned the vessel, the boy, who was separated from his father, might have been sucked up in the churning waters alongside the barge.
The operator of the tugboat, identified as the Trinity Bay, came to a full stop and laid up on an Intra-coastal bank. The decision to abandon the boat, rescuers theorize, was a result of the father’s desire to keep his son from harm.
The busy waterway and outlying canals were scoured Saturday night and Sunday morning for signs of the boy, who was wearing a blue and white life jacket.
Firefighters from Bourg, Little Caillou and Montegut joined in the search. A Coast Guard Dolphin helicopter and 25-foot small-boat from Sector New Orleans joined the Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, the Terrebonne Parish Sheriff’s Office Water Patrol and the Lafourche Sheriff’s Water Patrol in the search overnight. Civilians in private boats also assisted, with the fire departments employing floodlights with generators to illuminate the area. Terrebonne Parish Sheriff’s Office canine units were also employed.
Daylight provided better opportunities for the search in the immediate vicinity of the tug and its barges. At the request of searchers the captain of the Trinity Bay pushed his vessel hard forward at around 7:30 a.m. The move allowed the boy’s body to be sighted and recovered.
Although facts are still being assembled, rescuers said some information they already have provides good guidance for local boaters who want to keep safety first.
The other fatality being investigated occurred around 1:15 a.m. in Lafourche Parish.
LDWF agents were called regarding the death of 44-year-old Robert Sims near Grand Isle.
Sims, 44, suffered serious head trauma after the boat he was traveling on hit a piling.
Sims, agents said, was a passenger on a 28 foot vessel travelling at a high rate of speed in the Caminada Pass, heading to Port Fourchon. Sims was leaning out of the vessel as a lookout when his head struck a piling around 1 a.m. on July 31. Agents arrived on scene with La-Fourche Emergency Medical Services within minutes of the incident, but Sims was already deceased.
The body of Ethan Hancock, 5, was recovered Sunday morning in the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway near the Company Canal following an all-night search in connection with a boating incident that occurred late Saturday.
