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DNR urges river safety

• The Georgia Department of Natural Resources warns that fatigue can alter a swimmer’s abilities.

Holly McCarthy

ALBANY — It was business as usual Tuesday at Riverfront park.

Swimsuit-clad children still ran screaming through the cold sprinklers while parents looked on. Two people perched on a rock above the Flint River’s edge, watching the water flow by while talking.

Only a bouquet of yellow flowers placed on the concrete steps leading to the river hinted to the tragic drownings that occurred there Sunday.

Ten-year-old Matthew Perry and his 11-year-old brother, Joshua, fell into the river while playing on some rocks. Several witnesses entered the river in an attempt to rescue the boys, but Joshua and 23-year-old D.J. Vinson were swept away by the current. Joshua’s body was recovered Sunday evening, but Vinson’s body wasn’t found until Monday.

In light of Sunday’s drownings, Department of Natural Resources officials say they hope people will realize how strong the Flint River really is.

According to DNR Conservation Ranger Ben Roberts, swimming ability, fatigue and hidden underwater dangers are all factors than can impact the safety of a river outing.

“People don’t think about these things because they are so used to the river,” Roberts said.

Roberts said some dangers to look out for while walking or swimming are rocks and sharp objects underwater, rip currents, wildlife such as snakes and fatigue.

“You can’t tell what’s under the water or how deep the water is,” said Roberts. “Even when the river is low, the speed picks up around the rocks.”

Roberts said he has been told by fisherman that their boat depth meters detected holes 30 feet deep in the Flint.

“You never know,” said Roberts, “when you’re walking in waist-high water if five feet away from you is a huge drop-off.”

While the DNR has no specific guidelines for what age or ability of swimmer is safest in the river, Roberts said that children, teens and people in their 20s are particularly at risk.

According to Roberts, six public water fatalities were reported in Region 5, consisting of 29 Southwest Georgia counties, since January of 2007. Of those six who drowned, five were aged 25 and under.

Albany Transit bus driver Stella Bradley said passengers have been talking this week about ways to make the river safer.

“The comments I’ve been hearing is that if they would put a fence down by the river, it would keep kids from going in and out and would be much safer than kids wandering off from the playground and going out there,” she said.

Bradley, who sat on a park bench at Friendship Fountain watching her 4-year-old goddaughter play in the sprinklers, said this weekend’s drownings affected her.

“He died a hero,” Bradley said of Vinson. “He lost his life trying to save a kid.”

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