81-year-old dies after pontoon flips on Wallace Lake

Daily News (West Bend, Wis.)
Published: June 15, 2018

81-year-old dies after pontoon flips on Wallace Lake

By Nicholas Dettmann

ndettmann@conleynet.com 262-306-5043

TOWN OF TRENTON — An 81-year-old town of Trenton man died Thursday after a weed-cutting pontoon he was riding on Wallace Lake overturned, pinning the man underwater for about two hours.

The death was confirmed by the Washington County Medical Examiner, Sheriff Dale Schmidt said at the scene.

Schmidt said the Sheriff’s Office received a 911 call at about 12:10 p.m. from a resident in the 7100 block of South Wallace Lake Drive. The resident reported the weed-cutting machine was in the water behind the home and upside down.

Newburg Fire Department and Washington County Dive Team immediately responded, as well as deputies from the Sheriff’s Office.

Jeff Gonzalez, assistant chief for the Newburg Fire Department, said he requested mutual aid. West Bend Fire Department and Fillmore Fire Department responded, as well as Saukville ambulance and Port Washington ambulance, with further assistance from Kewaskum, Waubeka and Jackson.

“The call came in that said someone was trapped,” Gonzalez said.

A sergeant from the Sheriff’s Office was the first to arrive at the scene and immediately got into the water and swam to the boat, which was floating upside down in about 4 1/2 feet of water and about 35 yards from shore. The sergeant went underwater and, by feel, found a victim.

“We did try to extricate him and we could tell he was seriously pinned underneath the machine,” Schmidt said, adding the victim was completely underwater. He also said the lack of water clarity made rescue efforts more difficult.

Once the divers arrived as well as other first responders, small airbags were used to try and lift the machine enough to remove the victim. Those attempts were unsuccessful.

“At that point, enough time had elapsed that chances of survival were slim so we switched to

recovery mode at that point,” Schmidt said.

At about 2 p.m., the victim was pulled from the machine and brought to shore.

“He was pronounced deceased by the Medical Examiner,” Schmidt said.

The machine is operated by the Wallace Lake Sanitary District.

“He does have several years experience of doing this,” Schmidt said.

“We won’t know the actual cause of death for some time,” he added.

How the boat overturned is unknown. Schmidt said witnesses saw the boat on the lake, but there were no witnesses to the boat turning over.

“What we do know is they had been cutting weeds this morning,” Schmidt said. “There was a load of weeds on the machine. He was en route to unload that at the shoreline to the east.”

Schmidt said there was another person out on the water with the victim, but was on a different boat.

The machine has rotating cutters that cut the weeds underneath the waterline.

“Many lakes do processes like this every summer, all summer long,” Schmidt said. “I’m not aware of any other accidents involving these machines.”