Man pulled from Sandusky Bay after kayak accident dies
Dallas McKinley was 58
SANDUSKY —
A city man died after an apparent accident Wednesday while he was doing landscaping work from a kayak on Sandusky Bay.
Dallas McKinley was 58.
He was pulled from the water in a residential channel off Crosstree Lane, a gated community just east of the Cedar Point Causeway but later died, according to Sandusky fire Chief Mario D’Amico.
McKinley was working at a private home, clearing growth along the seawall, D’Amico said.
“He was in a kayak, pulling weeds off the side of the wall in the channel behind the house,” D’Amico said Sunday. “His brother went up front to do some work for a while and when he came back about 15 minutes later, he didn’t see him. He saw his hat floating in the water and the kayak was turned over.”
The brother searched briefly, then called 911.
Firefighters from Station 3 responded and immediately entered the water but were unable to locate McKinley. The fire department’s dive team was already en route.
“When they got there, they suited up, dove in around the area where he was working and found him within like two or three minutes of being in the water,” D’Amico said. “They pulled him out, they did CPR, they transported to Firelands. After they worked giving CPR for a while, they got a pulse back and they flew him to another hospital.”
McKinley died on Thursday, according to a death notice Toft Funeral Home.
From the initial 911 call to recovery, about 34 minutes passed, D’Amico said.
“Usually we don’t work people after 20 minutes unless it’s like a cold-water drowning … even though the water is a little warm right now, that’s still kind of borderline. So they usually take a little extra time to do life-saving measures in that case.”
No foul play is suspected, he added.