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Saturday, June 22, 2002

By Bill Heltzel, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

A Butler youth drowned late Thursday after jumping into Lake Arthur on a $35 dare.

Adam Parks, 17, was declared dead at Allegheny General Hospital, where he was flown after emergency workers tried to revive him at the Butler County state park. The Allegheny County coroner's office ruled the death an accident.

Parks and six friends had gathered at the Route 528 bridge, near a boat launch at Muddy Creek channel on the northeast side of the lake.

A friend dared him to jump, according to park Ranger Rick Carson, and egged him on with $35. "After considerable coaxing," Carson said, Parks and a friend climbed a bridge pier about 30 feet above the water.

The channel is about 20 feet deep and there was no current. The friend counted down, 5-4-3-2-1, and Parks jumped.

Parks surfaced and began swimming to the shore. He yelled for help, went down, came back up, swam a few more feet, yelled for help again, and went under 35 feet from shore.

"That was the last he was seen alive," Carson said.

At 10 p.m., one of his friends used a cell phone to call for help.

A member of the Prospect Volunteer Fire Department found Parks' body about 20 minutes after he went under.

Carson said there was no evidence of alcohol or drug use and Parks may have been incapacitated by a cramp.

Though it is illegal to jump from the two bridges that cross the lake, the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources gets six to eight cases a year. Typically, the jumper is picked up by a companion in a boat and takes off before a ranger can do anything, Carson said.

"This is the first one where they didn't make it and drowned," Carson said.