GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Scary moments on the Grand River were caught on camera when two people were knocked off their jet ski after trying to go over a dam.
“Looked like the guys are having a lot of fun but the two that went over that little spill, they had capsized, I would say about 30 yards above it, and I watched them,” Jake Kueker, who caught the situation on camera, recalled to FOX 17 Friday. “They were unsuccessful getting back on in time and they went over.”
Kueker, when this happened last weekend, was in town for work and decided to fish at the Grand River when he had a break.
“I mean they look like they’re having a blast, everybody out there, I mean, they’re, like I said, there was 50-plus, you know, jet skis or water vessels, whatever you want to call them, out there just ripping up and down those spills,” he added.
Kueker says that when the jet ski capsized, one of the people on it almost drowned.
We talked with the Grand Rapids Fire Department about the potential dangers people can face when using the Grand River recreationally.
“They kind of have a nickname— drowning machines,” GRFD Battalion Chief David Noorman said about the dams throughout the Grand River. “We’ve seen a lot of tragedies with that.”
Although witnesses believe the people on the jet skis were wearing life jackets, Noorman says being near the dams in general can be deadly.
“It’s just [a] big circulating column of water and what happens is, if you get caught in that, it’s going to keep rolling you over and rolling over and you won’t be able to break free from that,” Noorman explained. “That dam is going to keep pulling you back to the face of the dam and then pushing you underwater.”
After nearly a minute and a half, someone was able to rescue the jet skier from the dam.
“It’s a great river. It’s a lot of fun but also have some respect for it,” Noorman added.
