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State launches raft of safety regulations for Youghiogheny River
Tuesday, May 22, 2001 By Lawrence Walsh, Post-Gazette Staff Writer
The state wants to make white-water rafting safer on the Youghiogheny River and has unveiled a host of new safety measures that take effect this weekend.
David Yealy hopes paddlers pay attention to them.
"I don't want anyone to go through what we've gone through," said Yealy, of Adams County. His 16-year-old daughter, Andrea, drowned Sept. 16 when an inflatable kayak she was paddling with a friend flipped at Dimple Rock rapid.
Willie Pate, 46, of Cleveland, and Stewart Hill, 63, of Andover, Ohio, drowned earlier last summer at Dimple Rock. It is one of the most challenging rapids on what is known as the "Lower Section" of the river. It runs 7 1/2 miles from just below the falls in Ohiopyle to Bruner Run and is paddled by about 100,000 persons a year.
There have been 17 drownings on the Lower Yough since 1976 and eight of them occurred at Dimple Rock. Yealy was making her second trip on the river; Pate and Hill had never been on the river before.
"While we want people to enjoy a run on the river, we need them to know this is not an amusement park ride," Doug Hoehn, operations manager of Ohiopyle State Park, said in a statement yesterday. The park, in Fayette County, is overseen by the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources.
"This is nature, and any adventure sport includes a certain amount of risk," Hoehn said. "These safety measures are designed to minimize and make people aware of that risk."
The safety measures, scheduled to be in place for the Memorial Day weekend, include: A no-nonsense safety video about the potential hazards of whitewater rafting; more warning signs at the launch area in Ohiopyle and on the river; new rescue equipment; increased training for park staff; park rangers patrolling the river to emphasize safety and enforce park rules; and new waterproof river maps.
"I hope it has an impact, a big impact on people," Yealy said.
The increased emphasis on safety was recommended by a group of white-water experts Hoehn convened last fall and by a six-member jury that heard testimony about the three drownings during a daylong inquest Nov. 28. The inquest was called by Dr. Phillip E. Reilly, the Fayette County coroner.
Hoehn said the video, which will be shown to paddlers before they get on the river, will include the importance of "scouting the river and [using] alternative rafting routes away from danger areas." It will not be required viewing, but all paddlers will be urged to see it.
Although the park recommends that first-time rafters run the river with one of the four state-certified commercial rafting companies in Ohiopyle, some prefer to rent rafts, paddles and life jackets and go on their own. The video recommends they stop above each major rapid and scout it before running it.
As expected, Dimple Rock rapid will receive the most attention.
In addition to signs and exhibits at the launch area, there will be a warning sign as rafters approach it. The sign will urge inexperienced paddlers to use a path on the far right side of the river to carry their raft around the rapid. The path should be completed this summer. An older rock-strewn path will be used until then.
Most rapids are run straight on, but Dimple Rock requires paddlers to run it at an angle to the right. The white water created when the current flows against the rock and falls back on itself can capsize a raft in seconds. The rock is undercut on the left side and a few drowning victims have been trapped under it.
Hoehn said the state is investigating the possibility of filling in the undercut section of the rock but won't do so if it might increase the danger of running the rapid. He said removing the rock "has been ruled out as a consideration."
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