High winds may have led to boat
overturning Saturday
Bill Wilson bwilson@thekansan.com
Newton Kansan
MARION -- High winds are the probable
culprit for the drowning of a 5-year-old Newton boy Saturday evening
on Marion Reservoir.
A Marion County Sheriff's Department
report obtained by the Marion County Record this morning attributes
the accident to high winds and large waves on the reservoir that
capsized the boat between 8:30 and 9:30 p.m. Saturday. The Kansan was
informed by a Marion County dispatcher this morning that no one in
the sheriff's department was releasing information on the incident.
According to the report, Rick Herbel of
411 W. Broadway and his sons Kyle and Derrick were fishing in a
fiberglass boat on the reservoir when the winds and waves caused the
boat to capsize. Kyle Herbel, 5, died later Sunday morning from water
inhalation at Columbia-Wesley Medical Center in Wichita.
Each of the three occupants of the boat
were wearing what sheriff's investigators described as "appropriate"
flotation devices. However, the size of the waves and the speed of
the wind caused the water to wash over both boys as they attempted to
find their way to shore.
On shore, Kyle Herbel because
unresponsive. CPR was performed on the scene by a person or persons
unspecified in the report, and the boy was taken by Marion County
ambulance to St. Luke's Hospital in Marion. He was later flown by
LifeWATCH helicopter to Wesley.
