Accident Database

Non-Witness Narrative by (name not provided) on 2010-08-02 (okay to publish): Couple drowns in Jordan River http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=11815576&hl=8

MURRAY -- A Sandy couple drowned Sunday when their kayaks capsized in the Jordan River in Murray. Fire officials say 49-year-old Joseph Glasser and his wife, 51-year-old Kelly Glasser, began kayaking near 11400 South and the Jordan River Parkway with a friend. As they approached 6600 South around 4 p.m., they went over a small waterfall, flipped and got sucked into the water by an undertow. The couple went into the water when their kayaks flipped Kevin

Wintnesses saw the Glassers try to make it over the waterfall. "I ran down and grabbed a branch to see if I could get a branch out to them, but they were right in the middle," he said. Witness says he saw the couple's friend come through and make it across safely. The two of them got Joseph Glasser out of the water. "We drug him up on the bank and started CPR on him," Winsness said. "About then, Murray Fire Department got on site." "When they were found here, neither of them were breathing. Neither of them had a pulse."

 Deputy Fire Marshal Russ Groves Swift-water rescue teams used their ropes to pull Kelly Glasser out of the fast-moving water and began CPR. "When they were found here, neither of them were breathing," said Deputy Fire Marshal Russ Groves with Murray fire. "Neither of them had a pulse." But emergency crews were unable to revive them. The couple was taken to Intermountain Medical Center where they were pronounced dead Sunday evening. Winsness says despite having flotation devices on, the two simply underestimated the power of what looked to be a small, simple waterfall. "That waterfall is about a foot and half tops, but it just has an undercurrent that's just deadly," he said. There are signs in the area warning boaters to get out and walk around the rapids because the current is too swift.

When she wasn’t fighting rapids, Kelly Frye Glasser was making sure children weren’t placed with abusive parents. Kelly Glasser was an attorney working as a guardian ad litem at the state’s office in Provo and would advocate for children and would tell judges about the physical or emotional trauma they suffered.

Kelly Glasser and her husband, Joseph Glasser, drowned Sunday on the Jordan River in Murray. The couple, who lived in Sandy, paddled separate kayaks over a drop under a bridge at 6600 South — a deadly hazard that has prompted warnings among local paddlers. The churning flow caught both of them and pulled them underwater.

When rescuers arrived, a third kayaker had pulled Joseph Glasser, 49, from the water and was performing CPR. Firefighters used a network of ropes to retrieve Kelly Glasser, 51, from the river. Both were pronounced dead at Intermountain Medical Center.

The drop in the river is caused by a low-head dam — a concrete ledge below the water, said Utah Whitewater Club President Jeff Young.

Young said he noticed the low-head dam from the shore earlier this year and immediately sent a warning to club members.

“It’s really, really deadly,” Young said.

A warning sign is posted before the bridge, and Gary C. Nichols’ River Runners’ Guide to Utah notes the hazard: It would be easy to be trapped and drown if you went off this drop.”

Low-head dams — nicknamed “drowning machines” by paddlers — are deceptively dangerous, said Greg Joyner, owner of Coldwater Company Kayak and Supply in Salt Lake City.

“It doesn’t look like an intimidating drop,” Joyner said. “You might take the warning lightly because you think, ‘There’s no way I’m going to have a problem with this.’ ”

The low dam at the bridge creates a river-wide churning flow that can catch floating objects many feet downstream, Young said. Once in the cycle, the only escape for a swimmer is to remove his or her flotation device and swim down to the river bottom, staying below the rotating current for its entire reach downstream.

Paddlers nationwide are seeking removal of low dams or mitigation by dumping rocks at the dam base to disrupt the water’s cycle, Young said. Some cities have converted low-head dams into whitewater play features and swimming holes, said Crystal Young, of RiverRestoration.org, the group that is conducting modifications on the Ogden River.

But priority goes to dams in popular river stretches, and the leg of the Jordan River north of 11400 South is not often paddled, Young said.

Those who paddle that section usually portage on the left side of the river, he said. It’s important to identify the bridge in order to get out in time, he said.

It was the Glassers’ first paddle in this stretch, Murray rescuers have said. The couple are survived by two children from Kelly Glasser’s first marriage. Funeral arrangements were pending Monday.

ncarlisle@sltrib.com

E-mail: lprichard@ksl.com