5-year-old dies in Intracoastal Waterway, 44-year-old killed in Caminada Pass, LDWF says
Agents with the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries worked two separate boating accidents that claimed the life of a 5-year-old boy near Bourg and a 44-year-old man near Grand Isle.
In the first accident, which occurred Saturday night around 11:40, 5-year-old Ethan Hancock of Houma was frogging with his father when their 14-foot mud boat ran out of gas near Bourg in Lafourche Parish, according to a press release.
His father was attempting to paddle across the Intracoastal Waterway when a tugboat pushing two 297-foot barges came up behind them. They entered the water with Hancock wearing a personal flotation device, but the child got separated from his father, the release states.
His father was able to swim away from the tugboat, but the child did not resurface until 7:30 a.m. on Sunday, according to the release.
In the second accident, which occurred in Caminada Pass near Grand Isle early Sunday morning about 1:15, Robert Sims, of Metairie, was killed after hitting his head on a piling, the release states.
Sims was a passenger on a 28-foot boat traveling at a high rate of speed heading to Port Fourchon, and was leaning out of the vessel acting as a lookout when the accident occurred. Paramedics arrived on the scene within minutes, but Sims was already dead, the release states.
