Woman hospitalized after kayaking accident
A woman remained hospitalized Wednesday following a Sunday morning kayaking accident in which she became pinned under a rock at the “Charlie Washing Machine” hydraulic in the Youghiogheny River in Ohiopyle State Park. Erica L. Snyder, 26, no address given, has been in UPMC Presbyterian since the mishap, but the hospital is not releasing any further information as per her family’s request.
“She was participating an adventure race with her husband on a two-person inflatable kayak called a ducky,” said Gretchen Leslie, press secretary for the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, which manages the park.
Her husband told park rangers that the kayak got stuck in a sideways position in the hydraulic, which is in the “Railroad Rapids” just up river from “The Loop” takeout at the Ferncliff Peninsula, Leslie said.
A hydraulic is swirling water created when water flows against a rock.
Snyder and her husband got out of the kayak and tried to free it when she slipped and went under water, he told the rangers.
“The force of that hydraulic was pinning her under the rock,” Leslie said. “Those hydraulics can be quite strong. It appears she could have been caught in one of those hydraulics.”
The accident occurred just after 10 a.m.
An Ohiopyle volunteer firefighter pulled the woman from the river even before rangers arrived at the scene and began CPR.
She was placed on a backboard, an air bag was used and she eventually began breathing on her own. Fayette EMS administered oxygen to the woman, Leslie said.
A medical helicopter was dispatched and flew her to the hospital. She arrived at UPMC at 11:30 a.m.
All four air chambers in the couple’s rented kayak remained inflated throughout the accident and the woman was wearing an approved personal flotation device, Leslie said.
She said the DCNR and the outfitter that operate at the park make rafters and kayakers aware of the inherent risks of boating the rapids in the river.
While Leslie had no information about the couple’s whitewater experience, she said inexperienced adventurers should not venture into the lower Youghiogheny’s rapids unless they go on a guided trip with one of the outfitters.
“It’s not an amusement park,” she said.