
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, August 3, 1995                   TAG: 9508030067
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: MATT CHITTUM
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

ROANOKE RIVER CLAIMS LIFE OF SWIMMER, 17

A 17-year-old boy on an outing with his family drowned Wednesday night in the Roanoke River when he slipped off a ledge he was standing on into deeper water.

"He went from 5 feet of water to about 15," said Bobby Chumbly of the Stewartsville Division of the Scruggs Dive Team.

Parkway rangers and Roanoke County Police closed the Blue Ridge Parkway bridge temporarily as rescue workers set up lights to illuminate the search area more than a hundred feet below. Down on the river, searchers in boats used flashlights and long poles to try to find the body.

Chumbly, strapped into a wet suit and oxygen tank, finally recovered the body at 10:15 p.m., about an hour after the boy went under.

The boy and his family were swimming in the river beneath the high bridge on the Blue Ridge Parkway in Roanoke County when he disappeared in the murky river just below Appalachian Power Co.'s hydroelectric dam.

The water is calm and slow moving at the surface in that area, but Chumbly said it's deep in some places.

Keywords:
FATALITY

by CNB