Children who died were wearing lifejackets when boat overturned: N.S. RCMP

Two children are dead after a boat overturned in Lake Rossignol, N.S.

The RCMP says two children who died, and two people who were injured, were all wearing lifejackets when their boat took on water and overturned in West Caledonia, N.S., over the weekend.

Police and emergency crews responded to a boater in distress on Lake Rossignol, located roughly 180 kilometres southwest of Halifax, just before 5 p.m. Saturday.

“The boat had overturned and four people, a man and three children, were in the water and trying to get themselves to shore,” RCMP Const. Mandy Edwards told CTV News Atlantic on Monday.

“It was actually the man, he called 911 to report that he was in distress. Once the children were in the water and two of them were not doing well, they had difficulty breathing. He performed life-saving measures on the children while his son maintained communication on the cellphone with the dispatch, so that was a big factor in how they were able to be located.”

Edwards says Lake Rossignol is a large body of water with many islands and rocks, so it took emergency crews some time to find the group.

“So, the challenges would be the vastness of the lake, the water levels of the lake, as well as nightfall, and it was getting dark at the time, so those would be all the challenges that the rescue personnel endured,” explained Edwards.

“It’s great that they had a cellphone. If anyone’s familiar with that area, the cellphone service can be tricky. It can go in-and-out, but luckily, they were able to maintain that communication with dispatch, which helped in locating all the persons.”

She says a helicopter located the 45-year-old man and three children, all from Fall River, just before 7 p.m. and took them to hospital.

Two children died from their injuries. The man and one child remain in hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

Edwards says the children were aged 10 and under. She declined to comment on the man’s relationship to the children.

‘They did the best they could’

Edwards says the group had been camping in the area and were moving locations via boat on the lake. She noted the lake was fairly shallow due to the drought conditions, which made navigating the waters more difficult due to rocks.

Edwards says the man had checked the weather before heading out, and the forecast looked fine, but the weather changed and the waves picked up.

“They had a motor for their flat-bottomed canoe and that stopped working, and the waves increased, so they actually took on water and then the boat overturned,” said Edwards, noting all four boaters were wearing lifejackets.

“So far as boater safety, they checked the weather, they had their personal floatation devices — sometimes things can happen. They did the best they could and it’s just a reminder that although you are prepared, anything can happen.”

The investigation is ongoing.

With files from CTV News Atlantic’s Hafsa Arif

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