Last fatality on lake was in 2002

 

By Vicky Wedig

SLN STAFF

If it weren’t for three off-duty lifeguards, Delbert Burrious believes he would have been the first fatality on Delavan Lake in 10 years.

“I would have drowned,” said Burrious, 63, of Lake Geneva.

Burrious and his then-girlfriend Karen Powal, 63, of Delavan, went for a ride on Powall’s 24-foot Azure from her South Shore Drive home June 19.

“It was really hot,” Burrious recalls about the summer Tuesday when little traffic was on the lake.

To cool off, Burrious decided to jump into the lake for a swim. But the day was also windy, and Burrious, who is retired from the Navy and kickboxes and lifts weights at the Lake Geneva YMCA, was unable to catch up with the boat.

Powall, who grew up on the water, threw Burrious a life vest then a rope, but he wasn’t able to get to them. Powall swung the boat around to retrieve Burrious but couldn’t reach him, and he had tired to the point of exhaustion.

“I said, ‘Karen, Karen, I’m sinking!’” he said. “I says, ‘I’m going down!’”

Powall grabbed a life jacket and jumped in after Burrious. At that point, he said, he was swallowing water and waves were washing over his head.

“By the time she got to me, my head was about a foot below water,” Burrious said.

Powall said she reached down nearly 2 feet to pull Burrious’ head above water. She said his eyes were closed and his face was bluish-gray. Her boat was floating farther away in the wind.

“I can’t get to my boat even if I didn’t have him with me,” she said.

Powall held Burrious’ head above the water with one arm and the life jacket with the other and began screaming.

“The boat must’ve heard me,” Powall said.

On the boat were Bobby Clifford, 20, Andrew Cardosi, 19, and Meredith Diamond, 19, all Geneva Lake Water Safety Patrol members cruising around Delavan Lake on a day off.

“If it was anybody else, probably he wouldn’t be here today,” Powall said.

Clifford said he saw Powal’s boat moving fast in the wind and thought it looked strange. The group moved in for a closer look and saw a head in the water, then saw Powal’s hand go up to flag them down.

They pulled Burrious onto their boat where Diamond administered CPR, Clifford called 911 and Cardosi retrieved Powal’s boat.

Clifford said Burrious was initially blue and foaming at the mouth but began to breathe after one chest compression.

“I wasn’t breathing, but I had a pulse,” Burrious said. “My face was blue and gray, so I know I wasn’t breathing.”

Clifford said the boat had drifted about 1,000 feet away from the couple, which didn’t bode well for either of them.

“Both of them would have drowned if we were not there at the exact time we were,” said Clifford.

 

Lake fatalities

No one has drowned on Delavan Lake since July 4, 2002. The circumstances were similar to Burrious’ incident. A person jumped into the water near the Assembly Park area to go tubing on a windy day. The person was not a good swimmer and didn’t have a personal flotation device on and went under the water and drowned, said Police Chief Phil Smith.

The only fatality that occurred on a Walworth County lake this season was not a drowning but an accident with traumatic injury.      Patrick J. O’Driscoll, 48, of Park Ridge, Ill., died Sept. 3 – Labor Day, on Lake Como when the personal watercraft he was driving with his 9-year-old daughter on the back collided with an 18-foot motorboat. His daughter was uninjured but O’Driscoll died from traumatic injuries from the impact, according to the state Department of Natural Resources.

O’Driscoll’s death was one of 23 boating fatalities in the state in 2012.

In the previous five years, five people died on Walworth County’s 23 lakes – one on Lake Geneva in 2011, one on Lake Beulah in 2010, one on Lake Geneva in 2008 and one on Lake Beulah and one on Lake Ivanhoe in 2007.

On July 13, 2011, a 24-year-old man left the boat he was in to rescue a fellow passenger who was struggling in the water on Lake Geneva. The man drowned while swimming for the drifting boat. Alcohol was not involved, according to the DNR.

On Sept. 1, 2010, a 33-year-old man was driving a boat onto a lift on Lake Beulah when he fell overboard and drowned. The man’s body was found later that day. His blood-alcohol content was .224, according to the DNR.

On June 28, 2008, a 28-year-old woman was wake boarding on Lake Geneva when she fell off the board. While waiting for a tow boat to pick her up, she was struck by another approaching boat and died from injuries from the boat’s propeller, according to the DNR.

On June 26, 2007, a boat operator died on Lake Beulah in the Town of East Troy in a two-boat crash.

On Sept. 1, 2007, a boat operator died in a single boat accident on Lake Ivanhoe in the Town of Bloomfield.

The DNR has recorded 54 reportable accidents on Walworth County from 2007 to 2012 – 35 of them on Geneva Lake, six each on Delavan Lake and Lauderdale Lakes, five on Lake Beulah and one each on Lake Como and Lake Ivanhoe. Eight of those accident occurred through Nov. 30 of this year.

A “reportable” boat incident is any that results in loss of life, injuries that require medical treatment beyond first aid, boat or property damage of more than $2,000 or complete loss of a boat.

 

Patrol

Clifford said he believes Delavan Lake needs a water safety patrol like Geneva Lake has to prevent incidents like Burrious’ from becoming fatal accidents.

Geneva and Delavan lakes are the two largest lakes in Walworth County. Geneva Lake is about 2 ½ times larger than Delavan Lake.

The Geneva Lake Water Safety Patrol, founded in 1920, has six boats and 80 crew members who patrol Geneva Lake’s waters and 13 beaches. Boat crew members are certified in water rescue, first aid, CPR and boat handling. Its boat patrol is on duty from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. during the summer and on call for emergencies 24 hours a day.

“Within two minutes we can have somebody on one of the boats,” Clifford said.

Delavan Lake is patrolled by the marine unit of the Town of Delavan Police Department. The unit consists primarily of one boat that is on the water six to eight hours a day from mid-June through Labor Day, said Town of Delavan Police Officer Michael Smith, who heads the marine unit. The unit has an additional boat that can be called out as needed on busy weekends like the Fourth of July, and on high-traffic days, its boat is sometimes on the lake up to 15 hours a day, he said.

Unlike the Geneva Lake Water Safety Patrol, the staff of Delavan’s marine unit are sworn officers who issue citations, Smith said.

Like all of the department’s sworn officers, staff who man the marine unit are trained in first aid and CPR and as first responders, said Phil Smith.

In 2012, the patrol worked 1,050 hours, assisted 21 boats, investigated two accidents including Burrious,’ and issued 84 citations. Smith said officers write citations base on poor judgment displayed by boaters and issued 16 different types of citations this year including violating slow-no-wake zones, failing to display registration, failing to apply for registration, failing to have a fire extinguisher on board, failing to have enough personal flotation devices on board, boating while intoxicated, negligent operation, skiing without an observer and speeding.

“Citations are issued to discourage repeating offenses,” he said. “This helps keep the waters safe for everyone and lets the boating community know the town of Delavan Marine Unit actively enforces state statutes.”

Geneva Lake Law Enforcement, based in Williams Bay, conducts law enforcement on Geneva Lake. The Town of Linn, villages of Fontana, Williams Bay and Walworth and City of Lake Geneva are part of the agency.