A fisherman was pulled from the water below Winfield’s Tunnel Mill Dam Tuesday after witnesses said he fell from the dam while trying to cross it.
Emergency crews arrived at the scene around 5 p.m to find a Hispanic male on the bank of the river. He was removed from the sandy, rocky area by basket stretcher and loaded into an ambulance.
The man was under observation by emergency medical personnel but was conscious and did not appear to suffer life-threatening injuries.
Troy McCullough, who visits the dam area frequently to fish, said the person had been fishing on the dam’s west side and was crossing to the dam’s east side when the accident occurred. The man entered a faster moving area of the river and was swept off the dam.
Others confirmed seeing the man in the water in obvious distress and said he disappeared for at least a minute in the swirling waters below the dam.
McCullough jumped in and brought the man back to shore. He estimated the victim was in the water three to four minutes.
"At one point he was floating face first in the water," McCullough said. "I swam out there to him. His eyes were rolling back in his head."
McCullough said it wasn’t the first time someone had taken a tumble from the dam while trying to cross it.
"It happened to me," he said. "Of course the water was a lot higher then."
