‘Miracle’ Cited by Woman in Casino Boat’s Capsizing

“It was a miracle that we all got out,” Winifred Ervin, 56, said Wednesday as she sat by her husband Donald’s hospital bed. He added, “God was with us.”

The Ervins were among 25 people dumped into the swift-flowing Colorado River on Tuesday night when the ferryboat they were riding in hit a docked vessel and capsized.

The ferry, owned and operated by the Edgewater Casino on the Nevada side of the river, is one of a dozen pontoon boats shuttling visitors, casino workers and others between this Arizona city and the gambling casinos in Laughlin, Nev.

Nevada state investigators said the Edgewater ferry’s single outboard engine apparently failed as it pulled away from the dock at 9:30 p.m. Tuesday for the 100-yard run across the river. The powerful flow of the river swept the 27-foot craft downstream a short distance into the Little Belle, a paddle wheel tourist boat moored to the next dock.

The force of the impact and the strong current worked to flip the ferryboat, according to Warden Paul Dankowski of the Nevada Department of Wildlife, which has jurisdiction over river traffic and is investigating the accident.

“It appears now that it was a mechanical malfunction and the boat drifted away from the dock,” Dankowski said. He said casino security guards and employees managed to rescue all 25 of the victims. “There are no missing people that we know of,” he said.

Early in the panicky search for passengers Tuesday night, there were unfounded reports that two people were dead and 10 more were feared missing.

Eighteen divers were summoned to search the 53-degree water for passengers, according to a Las Vegas police official. Emergency helicopters from Las Vegas and Arizona and personnel from the Las Vegas police search-and-rescue unit joined U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and state Department of Wildlife personnel in a hunt that found shivering survivors scattered along half a mile of river bank.

“They were wet, cold and really shook up,” paramedic Janice Childers of Las Vegas-based Mercy Ambulance Co. said of the passengers. “They were real scared and worried about people they were with because everybody was separated when the boat went under.”

3 in Hospital

All of the passengers were taken to the Bullhead Community Hospital, and after examinations all but three were released. The three who remained in the hospital were Ervin, 53, of Bullhead City, who suffered cuts and bruises; Franklin Milano, 51, Santa Clara, Calif., abdominal pains, and Neil Bason, 71, Toprock, Ariz., acute hyperventilation.

Ervin and his wife had attended a bowling tournament at the Edgewater Casino and were returning home across the river, they said.

“We were still at the dock and the engine quit. . . . The current took the boat straight down (stream), and we hit the Little Belle,” Ervin said.

He said the boat operator yelled for everybody to jump overboard. The passengers were not wearing life vests at the time although a casino official indicated that the boat operator attempted to distribute them as the vessel foundered.

“I couldn’t get off. I was on the wrong side (as the boat flipped), and I was in the water and on the bottom. . . . The boat was on top of me,” Ervin said. He struggled to free himself. “I was taking water like crazy. I saw a light (on the dock), and I got out.”

As he dragged himself onto the dock, he saw a security guard pulling another victim out. “It was my wife. . . . She (the security guard) saved her life,” Ervin said.

Ervin’s wife agreed: “I was trying to get out, but the currents were too strong. I’d just about given up when I saw this hand in the water and I grabbed it.” The hand was that of a young security guard. “I never did get her name. . . . I was too sick and tired. Thank God she was there.”

Fleet of 7 Ferries

Edgewater Casino spokesman Jay Boyd said the casino operates a fleet of seven ferries around the clock. Each can carry as many as 28 passengers and is inspected and licensed by the U.S. Coast Guard, Boyd said.

He said boat operators are trained and licensed. He said the operator of the flipped ferry, whom he did not identify, did “everything he was supposed to. He tried to start the engine, get the life vests, and see to the passengers.”

According to Boyd, the Edgewater ferry system has carried 563,000 passengers in the last six months between the Arizona and Nevada sides of the river without incident. He said the system previously had suffered no mishaps in his five years with the casino.