On 5/9/09 at 1953 Hrs. the Yakima County Sheriffs Office was alerted to a rafting accident involving two rafts and four individuals.  This incident was reported by one of the involved subjects self rescuing himself from the river and alerting a Washington State Patrol Trooper on I-82 at mile post 39.  The reporting subject was later identified.  4 Deputies responded to the scene as and the Yakima County Sheriffs Office Boating Safety Unit were notified and responded.  Two deputies responded to the East side of the Wapato Diversion Dam (aka Parker Diversion Dam) and located a subject stranded on an island just west of the dam.  The subject was later identified.

An intensive search operation was then set into motion to search for survivors.

Case History:

The information regarding boat #1 in this report provided by Rescued individual due to the fact the both occupants of boat #1 are not able to report the incident, Rescued individual and his brother are related to this case because he and his brother were in a separate raft along with Boat #1 of this incident.  For reporting purposes however, there are two separate crafts.  Brother and Rescued individual's boating accident does not meet the reporting requirements because no medical care more than basic first aid was required.

Rescued individual stated he and his brother were in one rubber raft and his friends, later identified, were in another rubber raft on the afternoon of May 17th, 2009.  Rescued individual stated they were rafting the Yakima River just for fun and for a way to get out of the heat of the day.  Rescued individual states the group put in their rafts at the 16th Avenue access to the river.  Rescued individual and his brother were in an 8 ft blue Sevylor-Sterns Raft model number K330BM/U238BLU with a HIN number of CN-SEV 12408-A808.  Both Rescued individual and brother had on their PFD's.  missing subjects were in a yellow four man raft.  Rescued individual did not know the brand of the raft and it has not yet been recovered.  None of the family members knew the brand of raft they were using.  Rescued individual states deceased person1 was wearing a red USCG approved PFD but deceased person2 was not.  I asked why deceased person2 did not want to wear a PFD and Rescued individual stated that victim just thought he was invincible and didn't need it.  At the time of this report, victim’s body has not been recovered from the river.  Neither party had sound producing devices on their rafts.  No other safety equipment was on board.

Rescued individual told me that none of the rafting parties were drinking on the day of the voyage.  When Rescued individual was recovered from the dam, no smell of alcohol was observable and he did not display any signs of alcohol use when we contacted him at the scene.  Rescued individual said the plan was to float from the 16th Ave put in point to teh Wapato/Donald Bridge area.  I asked him if he knew about the dams and he said that he and all the persons floating that day did know about the dams but thought they could float over them.  

Rescued individual said that the voyage was going fine until they approached the dam.  Rescued individual and brother’s boat was in the lead with victims’ boat approximately 2 feet behind them off the starboard side.  As they went over the dam, Rescued individual and brother were ejected from their boat and thrown into the water.  Rescued individual said that he made it to a tree trunk that in the river just downstream from the dam and stayed there.  He also noticed that the other boat was empty and floating by.  He told me that he then saw deceased’s body float by his location and that deceased appeared to be unconscious.  Rescued individual told me that he knew at that moment that deceased had drowned.  He did not know the location of the other boat occupant.

Rescued individual then told me he then jumped into the water in an attempt to make it to the west (river right) shore.  He made the swim
Yakima                        