ALEA and volunteers assist in the search of missing boaters
ALABAMA (WCBI) – A pair of boating mishaps has kept the Marine Division of the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency and the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources busy since the weekend.
Around 3:21 pm on Saturday, ALEA reports 61-year-old Lowell Hinton, Junior of Corinth, fell overboard from the pontoon boat he was operating on Pickwick Lake, near Yellow Creek and State Line Island on the Lauderdale County, Alabama side of the lake.
He did not resurface. ALEA’s Marine Division and Aviation Unit, along with numerous local fire departments from both Alabama and neighboring Hardin County, Tennessee, have been assisting in the search.
Further south, near Gainesville in Sumter County, Damond Driggers of Millry fell overboard from the 17-foot aluminum duck boat he was operating on the Tombigbee River around 12 AM Saturday.
ALEA, the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, and a large number of volunteers searched throughout the day Sunday for Driggers.
That search resumed this morning, at around 8:10 pm, and Driggers was recovered from the Tombigbee near where he went in.
Neither Driggers nor Hinton was wearing a life jacket.
ALEA’s Marine Division is investigating both incidents.
