Dillon Spears got his driver’s license just 12 days before he and a friend decided to drive to Lake Keowee. Their destination was Fall Creek Landing, where a popular rock outcropping is a focal point for recreation.
“He said there was a rock up there that everybody likes to go jump off of, and he and his buddy wanted to go,” Dillon’s father, Jimmy Spears, told The Greenville News and Anderson Independent Mail. “Everybody had talked about that rock.”
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It was Father’s Day, June 18, 2017. Dillon had already left for the lake when Jimmy Spears got home from work.
The 15-year-old swam across a cove that day but never made it to shore. He drowned.
His death is one of at least 27 that have occurred in the last 22 years at two of the most popular spots on Lake Keowee and Lake Hartwell. Those two areas, Fall Creek Landing on Lake Keowee and Singing Pines on Lake Hartwell, are likely to be packed with visitors especially over the summer.
Singing Pines Recreation Area on Lake Hartwell attracts thousands
Lake Hartwell is a man-made lake that spans 56,000 acres and includes 962 miles of shoreline along the South Carolina-Georgia border. More than 10 million people visit the lake per year, according to Russell Wicke, a spokesman for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Savannah District office, which monitors safety at Hartwell.
Singing Pines Recreation Area near Starr is one of 85 recreation areas on the lake. It has been the site of seven of the 20 accidental drownings on Anderson County’s portion of the lake since 2012, according to the Anderson County Coroner’s Office. The coroner’s office does not have comprehensive data about drownings prior to 2012.
The reasons behind the deaths near Singing Pines are varied. The most widely known death at the site was Anderson County Sheriff’s Office Master Deputy Devin Hodges, 30, who died during an on-the-job training exercise in 2017.
Remedy to prevent drownings?:Duke Energy wants to add rock, fencing to ‘make it harder’ to access deadly Lake Keowee spot
In the other six deaths near Singing Pines, people were there for recreation.
“Singing Pines is popular for family reunions, get-togethers and groups of friends,” said Coroner Greg Shore. “People get out there that aren’t used to the water, and if they are under the influence of anything, that can affect their judgement.”
Four out of six recent drowning victims at Singing Pines had alcohol in their systems when they died, according to records from the coroner’s office.
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Deputy Coroner Don McCown, who has investigated many of the drownings along Lake Hartwell in recent years, said people sometimes don’t understand the area of the lake around Singing Pines.
“I think people can misjudge the depth of the lake there,” he said. “That can get them into trouble.”
Young men die at Fall Creek Landing on Lake Keowee
Fall Creek Landing, one of the most popular recreation areas on Lake Keowee, meanwhile, continues to claim more lives.
Man-made at about 18,500 acres and with 300 miles of shoreline, Keowee is considerably smaller than Hartwell but has had more water-related deaths over the last quarter-century.
And with the drowning of a 20-year-old Spartanburg man earlier this month, more people have died at Fall Creek Landing this year than any other year since 1993. Three people have drowned there so far this year: Jose Adrian Ramirez on Aug. 17, Thomas Landon Gallman on July 2, and Angelo Hall on April 29. All of the men were under age 30.
Ramirez’s drowning marked the 20th case since Oconee County Coroner Karl Addis began keeping track in 1993, when he noticed that Fall Creek Landing had become a hot spot for drownings. The landing is a popular boating and recreation area and features “the rock,” an outcropping on the northwest end of a small island that is accessible just across from the shore.
Drownings there over the years have not been a result of physically jumping from the rock but rather while swimming and wading in the water near the site, Addis said.
“The Oconee County Coroner’s Office encourages individuals who visit Fall Creek for swimming, boating, or jumping from the Rock to please use good judgement and place safety first for themselves, their family and friends,” Addis said in an email. “Do not swim alone. If swimming capabilities are limited, the use of a personal flotation device is strongly advised.”
Out of the 20 drownings at Fall Creek Landing since 1993, 16 people were under 30 years old. The median age of those who died was 20, according to records obtained from the coroner’s office. Every victim was male, and none of them were from Oconee County.
Eleven of them had drugs or alcohol in their system at the time of their deaths, according to the coroner, and three had a combination of both. Marijuana, prescription medications and methamphetamine were the primary drugs detected in those who tested positive for drugs, Addis said.
‘Our only child’: Family deals with the pain of loved one’s death
Dillon Spears, 15, of Spartanburg, was Fall Creek Landing’s youngest victim. He grew up in Spartanburg County and was a rising sophomore at Byrnes High School.
Ever since he was little, he liked to hunt, ride four-wheelers and work on cars. He was on track to become a certified firefighter by the second semester of his sophomore year, as well, his father said.
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“He had done more in 15 and a half years than a lot of people that live in South Carolina do in their lifetime,” Jimmy Spears said.
He loved baseball and had played since he was 2 years old. He loved his family and had many friends.
Dillon was buried in Kentucky, where he was from originally, 18 days after his death. About 40 friends from the Upstate traveled to attend his funeral, and eight or so ended up getting tattoos in his honor, Spears said.
“He’ll always be remembered as being one of the most lovable kids that ever breathed, if you asked me,” Spears said. “They say only the good die young, and I firmly believe that.”
Spears said he and his wife take things “day by day” while not a minute goes by when they don’t think about their only son. Neither of them work on Dillon’s birthday or the anniversary of his death.
“I’ve lost my parents. I’ve lost just about anything you can imagine, and it’s nothing like losing a child — and there’s no way of explaining it,” Spears said.
Duke Energy seeks to implement barrier to ‘the Rock,’ official says
Duke Energy owns Lake Keowee and posts warning signs along many of the popular boat landings, including Fall Creek near Salem.
“The signs say drownings have occurred in this area and urge people who cannot swim not to get in the water and to wear a life jacket,” said Kim Crawford, a Duke Energy spokeswoman.
Duke is looking into ways of preventing swimmers from swimming out to “the Rock” and to keep people from wading too far from the shoreline, Crawford said, adding any sort of rock barrier or fencing would require permitting through the Corps of Engineers, the state Department of Natural Resources, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Services and Oconee County.
“We are in the process of securing the necessary permits and regulatory approvals to implement these options,” Crawford said.
“A life should be worth whatever it costs to keep people from getting in there and losing more lives,” Spears said.
Daniel J. Gross covers public safety and breaking news for The Greenville News. Reach him at [email protected] or on Twitter @danieljgross.
Source: https://t-tees.com
Category: WHY
