New Bedford man who died after his raft overturns identified
By: Melissa Randall
mrandall@abc6.com
@MRandallABC6
A man, pulled from the water after an inflatable raft overturned in
A pair of boaters was returning to
“My gut feeling told me, when we arrived, it didn’t look good from there,” said Dinarte Pacheco.
Pacheco, and friend Scott Gomes, both of
On shore, rescue crews were already searching for two missing rafters. At that point Pacheco and Gomes took the first responders to the spot they found the inflatable boat.
“We noticed a female on a jet ski. She was flagging us— waiving us over,” explained Gomes.
With the jet skier were three adult men including Carvajal, who was unconscious. He was being held up by a Good Samaritan who swam over to help. The second rafter was barely clinging on, according to Pacheco. None of them were wearing a life jacket.
“He was exhausted. He had no energy left. We struggled to get him on the boat,” said Pacheco.
Fire fighters took the unconscious man to Saint Luke’s Hospital where a District Attorney spokesperson says he later died. Pacheco and Gomes say they provided a ride to safety for the others.
“We were pulling him [Carvajal’s friend] on board– he just kept thanking us and he was just so grateful that we had come along,” said Gomes.
Avid boaters say the water conditions in
“It was really windy, and not a day for boating for a vessel— let alone a raft,” said Pacheco.
The water temperatures Sunday evening were only in the upper 50’s. Carvajal’s friend is recovering from hypothermic symptoms.
© WLNE-TV 2015
