NYCkayaker Barge vs. Kayak

[Lee Reiser/Leona Fontaine]

Hi All,
  I saw this on the CPA listserve. I pass it on to all as a safety issue. This guy is one lucky dude.
  When I led the Great Ohio River Trip from Portsmouth, OH to Louisville, KY in 2005 and guided in 2004, there were many "push boats" to contend with, so much so that your head needed to be on a swivel to avoid them. We don't have as many here, but we do have many cargo and container ships as well as huge tankers and freighters. On the Ohio, the saying goes, there are two things that will kill you on this river. Things that move and things that don't move (like piers and tethered boats and barges). The same applies on the Hudson.
   Be careful out there,
 Lee Reiser

A kayaker was run over by a barge late Saturday night prompting a river rescue on both sides of the Ohio River. It happened around 9:15 between the Purple People Bridge and the Big Mac Bridge. 9News was the only station on the scene as the kayaker made his way up the riverbank after the incident.   Miraculously, the only thing that seemed to be injured was his pride.   The kayaker didn't want to talk on camera and didn't exactly seem pleased that our cameras were at the scene. It was dusk at the time of the accident, if not later, when several eyewitnesses tell 9News they saw the man trying to cross the Ohio, and beat the path of an oncoming barge that was heading up river.   Moments later, the barge was seen running him over, and it did not stop according to Cincinnati Police. It's likely that the barge didn't even know it had hit anyone.   It was a passing pleasure boat that brought the man to shore just moments after he resurfaced. We saw police from both Kentucky and Ohio respond, but he was already coming to shore by the time most arrived. We talked to one man who saw it all along with his family and dialed 911. "The barge went completely over top of him, both he and the kayak were both completely submerged, the kayak came out from the side of the barge, some boaters
started circling around and came down, and I was on the phone with 911 by then," said Adam Blevins, an eyewitness. The man refused treatment at the scene, and we are told charges aren't likely in this case. He didn't want to give ushis name other than his first name---Gary.
He did however admit that it was quite dark on the water at the time of the accident. 9News spoke to several eyewitness who said they couldn't believe their eyes when they saw him resurface after being struck by something so large.