Posted on 03/09/2006 7:11:46 AM PST by Rebelbase
OLD FORT (AP) — Daniel DeLaVergne, a whitewater kayaker who paddled one of North America's most dangerous rivers in less than 10 hours, died Wednesday after being hit by a train. He was 29.
Friends said they believed DeLaVergne was camping in the High Ridge Tunnel near Ridgecrest when the accident occurred Tuesday. He was struck by a 1,150-ton train heading west toward Asheville, Norfolk Southern spokesman Robin Chapman said.
DeLaVergne was airlifted to Mission Hospitals, where he was pronounced dead.
National Geographic Adventure magazine named DeLaVergne a 2005 adventurer of the year for paddling the 50-mile run of the Stikine River in British Columbia with three other kayakers. The run is rated Class V+, the highest survivable rating for a river, and the magazine described the river as "the pinnacle of North American white water.".
The magazine said it normally takes three days to paddle the Stikine, but DeLaVergne and his friends did it in nine hours and 50 minutes.
"Daniel has done first descents in Chile, Argentina, the U.S., Newfoundland, British Columbia — the list goes on," said close friend and fellow kayaker John Grace, who paddled the Stikine with DeLaVergne. "He was an incredible friend, had an incredible work ethic and was an incredible person all around."
DeLaVergne was about 200 feet inside the 450-foot tunnel when the train struck him, McDowell County sheriff's Capt. Vick Hollifield said. Investigators found DeLaVergne's sleeping bag and camping gear in the tunnel, and his vehicle was nearby, Hollifield said.
DeLaVergne's friends believe he was scouting an area for a commercial he was shooting. Rain may have forced him to seek shelter in the tunnel, they said.
"We're not sure if he was asleep or what," he said. "The engineer told us that he had just enough time to catch a glimpse of him before he fell in front of the train. He applied the emergency brake. ... But it took a pretty good while to stop. I think it was a couple hundred yards that he was pushed down the track."
I've recently been through a tunnel near Chattanooga on a steam locomotive, and if you held your arm out the window, you would'nt have it for long.
Why in the world would any one sane camp in a train tunnel?
What the heck was he doing sleeping in a train tunnel? Something about Darwin Awards comes to mind....
Glad to see I wasn't the only one...
This sounds like a suicide to me.Did he fall in front of the train or jump in front of it.Why would he choose to sleep so far away from the exits?Is there enough room for a person to stand on the side of the tracks while a train passes through the tunnel?
Only stands to reason. Trains have standardized maximum dimensions, and since blasting tunnels is expensive and/or laborious, you don't make them any bigger than absolutely necessary. I wonder if he could have hit the ground between the rails and let the train pass over him? I know there's certain plenty of room between the ties and the train's axles and couplers, but from what I can recall many locomotives have a plough/cow catcher/thingy in front that comes down pretty close to the rails.
When I was living back in Illinois a few years back, a high school student missed the bus (in more ways than one) and decided to take a shortcut to the next stop by walking along the tracks running past my subdivision. He was listening to his Walkman and didn't hear the the Amtrak train which hit him from behind. When they found him, the Walkman was still blasting music. My warped sense of humor at the time was thinking; "There is a good Sony ad in there somewhere".
As a whitewater paddler (rookie) myself, I sure hate to see an accomplished paddler buy it like this.
In this case, he could have found out exactly when it was "his time" by looking at the train schedule for the tunnel he was camping in.
Ja! Zee trains run on time!
Kayakers, even eXtreme kayakers, are not Darwin proof. Evo alert.
I think I would rather be wet than dead.
"...They pop up and disappear into the swells and waves. They are hard for boaters like myself to see and could easily end up getting run over."
My neighbor is a big boater and fisherman. He calls kayackers "Speedbumps"! ;o)
What is a left handed smoker?
I had visions of the Polar Express train on the lake after it thawed.
< cue harmonica >"Daniel kept a running from the train, all night long" well, at least untill he made 200' inside the tunnel.
Pot smoker...
BEFORE HE FELL IN FRONT OF THE TRAIN????????
I don't understand that. I thought he was supposed to be asleep?
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