Deadly jet ski accident in Richmond
Posted August 28, 2015 6:15 am.
Last Updated August 28, 2015 9:02 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
RICHMOND (NEWS 1130) – Two men are dead after a jet ski accident in Richmond last night.
The pair had been on the water during a beautiful evening were pulled, unresponsive, from the mouth of the Fraser River.
“Just after 9 p.m., we recieved a call that a vessel had spotted a jet ski adrift with two people in the water nearby,” says Paul Trasker, a search coordinator with the Joint Rescue Coordination Centre in Victoria.
“We sent the hovercraft from Sea Island to investigate. They recovered those two people; they were unresponsive and they were immediately taken to shore,” he tells NEWS 1130.
Richmond RCMP say the two men suffered severe head injuries. Both were wearing their life jackets. The two men were in their 50s. Their identities have not been released.
Investigators believe lighting conditions and speed were factors in the accident. RCMP note there was damage to the jet ski, but they are still trying to work out exactly what happened.
Foul play is not suspected.
This is just the latest rescue or recovery operation during an extremely busy summer for emergency crews all over the Lower Mainland.
North Shore Rescue has told NEWS 1130 they’ve fielded a record number of calls in August.
Team leader Mike Danks says too many people are hitting trails unprepared, and though the all the sunshine this summer has drawn huge crowds to the local mountains, people aren’t taking into account it’s now getting darker earlier.
“They wait until it’s dark and they get really stuck before they call and that puts our rescuers safety in jeopardy.”
NSR has responded to more than double the number of calls than usual this month and Danks says August isn’t done yet.
