Dock tragedy shows danger of fresh-water marinas

by Kevin Ritz on 22 Oct 2009 The danger of fatal electric shock in fresh water was all but unknown when Lucas Ritz, just 10 at the time, was electrocuted while swimming in their local fresh water marina.

Read Kevin Ritz's riveting story of his family who did everything right from a safety perspective, yet lost their son in a tragic incident.

Kevin's story goes on to tell the positive outcomes which came from his relentless efforts following Lucas's death:

We were a live-aboard family with three active childrenat a fresh-water marina on a tributary of the Willamette River near Portland, Oregon. Other kids were already swimming in the cove because it was that kind of day— hot and lazy. This was a common practice by adults as well as children during the warm summer of 1999.

Our sons Ian, age 10, and Lucas, age eight, asked to swim with their friends. Permission was granted, subject to close adult supervision by parents including their mother, a graduate nurse. The boys were both wearing Type II life jackets, so it was great fun and presumedly safe to play in the water. Our children were schooled in aquatic safety. Being young professional people, my wife, Sheryl, and I had taken every precaution we could for peace of mind in a water environment.

On the inside of the dock, the kids were having a great time floating down with the river current on an inner tube. Lucas moved away from the others toward his mother, who was keeping pace on the dock with the children’s water activity. As he approached the ladder to get out of the water, he let out a loud gasp, immediately rolling onto his back in his life jacket, apparently unconscious. Sheryl yelled to the other kids to help him and jumped into the water herself.

As the kids approached Lucas, they felt a slight tingly sensation in the water and immediately backed off. Upon hitting the water downstream from Lucas, Sheryl’s extremities went numb and she experienced extreme difficulty moving her limbs, which, at the time, she attributed to fear. Somehow, Sheryl managed to pull Lucas to the dockside where others assisted in getting him onto the dock.

I arrived moments later after hearing the commotion and, along with another onlooker, started giving him CPR, which we continued until the paramedics took over approximately 15 to 20 minutes later. Our beloved Lucas was pronounced dead at 6:30 p.m. at Portland’s Emanuel Hospital.

One moment he was laughing and playing—an instant later, his short life was over, leaving our hearts broken forever. As parents we suffered agonies of 'how did this happen?' This question then turned into 'why did this happen?' We relived every moment trying to sort out what we did or didn’t do. It was not until the next morning that we were able to start unraveling the pieces of the mystery.

The first assumption was that he drowned. However, he was wearing the best life jacket money could buy, which kept his face out of the water even though he was unconscious. He was pulled from a floating position only moments after rolling onto his back and CPR was started immediately. Also, at no time during CPR could we detect a heartbeat and his color was good. Neither of these observations would indicate drowning.

As Sheryl was telling me what had happened, she said she had never been so fearful in her life as to have her extremities tingle and go numb to the point where she could hardly move while in the water. Ian then related to me for the first time that he also felt a tingling as he approached his brother. Upon hearing all this it seemed clear to me that he did not drown, but that somehow, some way, AC electricity was present in the water where the kids were swimming. Our Lucas had been electrocuted. I then called the County Coroner’s office, requesting an autopsy if they had not already done so, because knowledge of the circumstances and common sense pointed to electrocution, not drowning.

They argued that there were no burns on his body. I pointed out that Lucas had been in an electrolytic solution, which eliminated the resistance of the skin (ordinarily skin resistance results in burns when an individual is electrocuted on land). To my complete horror, they responded that they would not know how to test for something like that. I told them that testing was not difficult and that I was going to test the water in the area. I then called the local Sheriff ’s Department and left a message telling them my suspicions. With my digital voltmeter, I went to the area where Lucas had been, put the negative lead to a ground, dropped the positive lead into the water, and immediately got AC voltage. I notified the Sheriff ’s Department, reporting what I had found. They agreed to send out some deputies while I called in an electrician to confirm my suspicions. He arrived later that morning, tracing the electricity to a powerboat that was in the area where the kids had been swimming.

Concerns about liability soon unleashed a stream of other investigators, all of whom were suddenly interested in determining the source of the current. The local utility company wound up sending a team. The owner and manager of the marina arrived. More deputies were called. Meanwhile, the electrician and I continued our investigation, focusing on the powerboat. We found a 12V wire lying on top of an AC wire, which had gotten hot enough to melt its own insulation and that of the hot (black) AC wire. This put 120V AC into the entire ground system of the boat, including the engines and propellers. This, coupled with lack of an AC safety ground, forced the voltage and electrical current into the surrounding water.

Fresh water is not a good electrical conductor; therefore the AC was unable to reach ground at a sufficient current to trip the breaker. Because of its high salinity, the human body is a much better conductor of electricity than fresh water. (Saltwater is more conductive than the human body, which explains why electric shock deaths have not occurred in saltwater.) As Lucas approached the ladder, he passed into the field of AC current and, for a brief moment, completed the circuit to ground. His heart was stopped instantly; the insidious path of electrical current took the life of our son.

At first we considered this a freak accident— a unique set of circumstances that just happened to us. But this event completely changed my life and my focus. I was determined to understand how this could happen and to do everything I could to keep it from happening again. I did not want anyone else to suffer the pain we had suffered. With the collaboration of my business partner, Andy Tufts, I wrote a couple articles for The American Boat and Yacht Council (ABYC), describing the accident and the actions that I have taken to create public and professional awareness of the problem, to provide education and a better understanding of the concepts involved, and to encourage the following of the ABYC standards and the use of ground fault-type devices onboard boats and in marinas.

I determined to enhance my own knowledge so that I would have a solid understanding of the workings of AC currents in freshwater environments. Andy and I have done that using many different avenues, not the least of which was ABYC. We are now both ABYC Master Technicians. Also, the thrust of our marine business changed significantly from emphasis primarily on sales to one concentrating on keeping boats electrically safe using ABYC standards. Our business motto became 'Safer Boating Begins With A Safe Boat.' On-line, I also started checking out freshwater drownings with the suspicion that many were possibly electrical current related. Much has happened in the years since and all of it good. The awareness of 'electric shock drowning' as a serious freshwater issue has sign