Dock Tragedy Shows Danger of Fresh-Water Marinas

PATH: Boating & Maritime Education » Boating Safety »

The danger of fatal electric shock in fresh water was all but unknown when an American child from Oregon, Lucas Ritz, just 10 at the time, was electrocuted while swimming in their local fresh water marina.

Lucas Ritz 1991-1999

Lucas Ritz 1991-1999

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.

We were a live-aboard family with three active children at 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.

12 volt DC wire laying on 120 volt AC wire

We found a 12V (purple) wire that had gotten hot enough to melt its own insulation and the insulation of the hot (black) 120V AC wire it was lying on top of, making an electrical connection between them. 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.

Note the very small melt in the AC hot - this tiny connection between the AC and the DC was all it took

Note the very small melt in the AC hot (black) – this tiny connection between the AC and the DC was all it took

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.

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

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 significantly increased. A USCG funded ABYC grant implemented by Capt. David Rifkin and James Shafer has greatly added to the understanding of how AC current behaves in fresh water. The truth is that most people electrically shocked in fresh water, unlike my son, are drowned. This is because of skeletal muscle paralysis caused by low levels of AC current using the body as part of its return path to its source. This is what Sheryl experienced when she jumped into the water to rescue Lucas. That she didn’t drown or get electrocuted was due to the voltage gradient of the electrical current from its source. She entered the water farther from the faulty boat leak than Lucas. Depending upon several bodily factors, a range of say 15 to 30 milliamps (mA) of AC current will create muscle paralysis, and the drowning of even good swimmers is the result. An AC current flow of around 100 mA will put the heart into fibrillation, and death will likely follow within seconds. This is a very serious problem, but it is preventable.

First and foremost, no one should go in the water at a marina. Signs should be posted on every pier warning people to stay out of the water. But, since not everyone will read this article, and since people often ignore signs, (as happened in the case of 19-yearold girl in 2005), or may fall into the water accidentally, the only certain cure is to have GFCI-type devices installed on boats that would automatically interrupt the flow of electricity in the case of a fault. There have been at least 60 needless fatalities and 100 unwarranted casualties from freshwater electrically induced faults.

The unfortunate reality is that currently there is no post-mortem evidence available to coroners to ascertain whether electricity was involved in a drowning. Nor do most law enforcement personnel have the technical skills or tools to investigate this type of accident. This lack of knowledge, training, and tools leads to questions about how many deaths have occurred due to faulty wiring on boats.

Some time after Lucas’s death, two Multnomah County River Deputies and I conducted a random sampling of 50 boats in three freshwater marinas in the Portland area. We found 13 boats leaking potentially lethal electrical current into the water. A ratio of 26 percent of faulty boat wiring leads one to wonder if the number of reported electrical deaths in fresh water is only the tip of the iceberg. If you have any doubts about your boat, it should be inspected by an ABYC-certified technician. Do not depend on an electrician with experience only on land. Let’s boat safely and save lives.

Careless wiring can be very dangerous!

The Long-Term Solution: Equipment Leakage circuit Interrupters (ELCI):

Lucas’s death will not have been in vain if my efforts and involvement with ABYC have played some small part in the creation of a new ABYC E-11 standard that would require the installation of an Equipment Leakage Circuit Interrupter (ELCI) device on boats (already required by code for land-based damp environments such as bathrooms, kitchens, hot tubs, etc.). In our situation, if the 120V AC ground wire had been bonded to the metal components on the boat (i.e. the negative side of the battery), the energizing of the 12V DC system with the 120V AC would have most likely tripped off the shore power breaker, severing electrical current flow. Or, if a Ground Fault Circuit Interrupter (GFCI) breaker had been installed by the marina ahead of the boat’s shore power, even 10 mA of current would have tripped it. So, bottom line-if the boat had been properly wired with an ELCI device or the marina placed a GFCI in front of the shore power cord, our son would still be alive today.

Once adopted and implemented on a vessel, the ELCI device, along with ABYC E-11 compliance, coupled with other pertinent ABYC electrical standards, will significantly reduce the odds of an electrically induced death because of an onboard wiring problem. Following standards will not only keep people on the boat electrically protected, but those in the water around the boat will be safe as well. After the accident, GFCI breakers were installed on each of the marina’s shore power distribution points. The only problem has been with new people coming to the marina who have tried to bypass the GFCI because their boats have electrical faults and they’re tired of resetting breakers.

My business partner and I did extensive research into this issue and have conducted seminars for law enforcement personnel and local, national, and international marine investigators. We also serve as a resource for several agencies if there is a suspicion that electricity might be a factor in a drowning. Our intent is to set up a web site giving technical information on the functioning of electrical currents in fresh water. If this information had been available to us, we would not be still grieving the loss of our son. If this story doesn’t say anything else, understand that a relatively simple fix could have prevented years of pain.

For more information, contact Kevin Ritz at Kevintritz#gmail.com.

More from Sea Breeze.
More from BoatU.S.
More from ESDPA Memorial for Lucas Ritz.

Electric shock Drowning Prevention Association: www.electricshockdrowning.org.
ESDPA Position Statement on Swimming with “Green Light Devices”.

NFPA Journal explores issues of electric shock drowning in marinas and boatyards.
NFPA Journal: Troubled Waters – A new look at marinas, boatyards, and the problem of electric shock drowning by Ashley Smith. AEABoats NFPA webpage.

Tags: Electric Shock Drowning, Electrocution.

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General Comments About the Website

FROM Donald: "This is an awesome website. I found the information that I needed right away from one of the over 20,000 free articles that you provide as a public service. I'm surprised that so much if this site is free. But I still signed up so I could access the thousands of expanded pages, interesting articles, and dozens of valuable programs! The member's library of books, magazines and videos that I can view online is really terrific! I understand that you and your staff are all unpaid volunteers. Please keep up the good work. And I commend you for your plans to add another 10,000 free informative articles over the next year. I'm thrilled to support you in this endeavor with my small membership donation. Thanks again for all your hard work."

FROM Huey: "I agree with my Uncle, I too have found the articles to be very enlightening. They say that it will take about 100,000 articles to cover the full scope that they have envisioned for the website. They have over 20,000 articles so far and that's doing pretty well, but it could take several years to get the rest. I also noticed that many of the Main Topic Pages and some of the article pages are still in the rough draft stage. I guess that they will fill in as they can get volunteers to work on them. But what I can't figure out is why anyone would spend the time writing informative in depth articles just to give away free to this website for publication? What's in it for them?"

FROM Dewey: "Well Huey, to me It looks like most of the articles on this website are written by very informed people, like boating instructors, boat designers, boat builders, riggers, electricians, fitters, marine repair technicians and marine surveyors. Writing such articles helps establish them as knowledgeable professionals. After all, this website was originally created by a school for marine technicians and marine surveyors. The website is growing in content every day. They even had to move to a bigger, more powerful server because the website's traffic has been growing exponentially."

FROM Louie: "I agree with everyone above. This site is quickly becoming the ultimate reference resource about every aspect of boats and ships for everyone from the beginning recreational boater to the seasoned professional mariner. I use the topic pages on the right sidebar to browse around the website. It's like a Junior Woodchucks' Guidebook for Boaters. Their Members' Library of over 300 popular and obscure books and over 200 magazine back issues that can be viewed online is fabulous. The Academy's magazine is especially informative. On top of that, there is the "Ask-An-Expert program for members where you can get an expert's answer to any of your boat questions. And a whole years membership is only $25. What a deal! I really love being part of this "Everything About Boats" community and help provide thousands of helpful articles free to the public. I think that I'll sit down right now and write an article about my experiences boating with my uncle."

FROM Scrooge: "You rave about this website like it was the best thing since sliced bread. Well, I think it stinks. Sure, it has a lot of good information for boaters, and they're adding more every day, but it will probably never be finished. Furthermore, I don't even own a boat. And I wouldn't have a boat even if someone gave me one. Boats are a waste of money and time and energy and money! They're just a hole in the water you pour money into. If you gave me a boat, I'd sell it quicker then you could say Baggywrinkle. Then I'd lock up the cash with all my other money so I could keep my eye on it and count it every day. Bah humbug."

FROM Daisy: "I'm just so glad that Donald got the boat so we and the boys could enjoy boating — together. And of course all of the girls, April, May, and June, love to be on the water too, especially when that is where the boys are. Oh poor Scrooge, boating is more fun then you could possibly imagine."

FROM Scrooge: "After seeing how much fun you all have on the water together, I regret that I didn't have that much fun when I was young. I've had a change of heart, and I'm giving each of you a Lifetime Academy Membership."

FROM Editor: "For those of you that have stayed with us this far, many thanks, and we hope that you found this little narrative informative. Your faithful support inspires us to keep working on this phenomenal website. We know that we have a lot more to do. Ultimately, we hope that we can help you enjoy the wonder filled world of boating as much as we do. We are all waiting to see what you have to say about this webpage article. Submit any comments via email To: Comments♥EverythingAboutBoats.org (Replace "♥" with "@"). Be sure to include this page's title in the subject line. Also, your corrections, updates, additions and suggestions are welcomed. Please submit them via email To: Editor♥EverythingAboutBoats.org (Replace "♥" with "@"). It has been truly amazing to see what we have been able to accomplished when we've worked together. Thanks to all those that have donated their valuable time and energy, and a special THANK YOU to all that have supported this cause with their membership donations."

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