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Water accidents leave two dead,
one injured
By
DAVID HULSE
RIVER VALLEY — Water-related
accidents along the Delaware River claimed two lives
and left another hospitalized Monday evening.
The Sullivan County Sheriff’s
Department investigated a drowning at Washington Lake
in the Town of Highland at 3:30 p.m. Witnesses told
detectives that they observed the victim, Joseph Hamulak,
age 87, of Yulan, wading in the water when suddenly
he was bobbing in the water some 25 feet from shore.
Witnesses brought him back to shore and CPR was started.
The American Legion Ambulance and Yulan Fire Department
were called. He could not be resuscitated. Hamulak
was pronounced dead at the scene by Sullivan County
Coroner Elton Harris.
Authorities say a 17-year-old Town
of Greenville youth was apparently drowned in the
Delaware during the late afternoon of June 24 near
the Elephants Feet rocks opposite Eddy Farm in Sparrowbush.
Daquan Cobb was said to have been among
a party of four teenagers who attempted a swim across
the river from New York to Pennsylvania shortly after
5:00 p.m. One of the group turned back and the victim
faltered and was lost in the deeper current near the
Pennsylvania shore, despite the efforts of the remaining
two swimmers, according to Orange County Fire Coordinator
James Rohner.
Divers and water
rescue equipment from Sparrowbush, Port Jervis, Matamoras,
Lumberland and the National Park Service (NPS) responded
and recovered Cobb at approximately 8:30 p.m. The
apparent river drowning was first of this year’s
summer season.
Orange County Coroner Donald Parker
said an autopsy was scheduled for Tuesday evening
and an investigation was continuing.
Later, around 7:00 p.m., Lake Huntington
firefighters and Cochecton Ambulance personnel were
called to the Cochecton-Damascus interstate bridge
after seven-year-old Jahrel Jeffers, of Cochecton,
fell from the span.
A NPS spokesman said the boy had been
swimming earlier at the old New York State access.
Leaving the water, he walked to the bridge and apparently
fell what was measured as 39.2 feet into less than
a foot of water on the upstream side at the New York
end, after having slipped off or lost his balance
on the bridge railing.
NPS Ranger Cliff Daniels said the boy
was transported to Grover Hermann Hospital in Callicoon,
suffering from a fractured left forearm and possible
internal injuries. He was later airlifted to the Westchester
Medical Center in Valhalla.
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