Accident turns to tragedy

By NICK REISMAN, reisman@poststar.com | Posted: Thursday, November 19, 2009 12:00 pm | (2) Comments

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Derek Pruitt - dpruitt@poststar.com The Hudson River flows over the Thompson Island Dam, which straddles the Northumberland and Fort Edward town lines, on Wednesday, Nov. 18, 2009. Jeffrey Harbison, a member of an archaeological crew working upriver, drowned Tuesday afternoon after the boat he was in went over the dam.

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NORTHUMBERLAND -- As the sun was setting Tuesday afternoon, Jeffrey Harbison and Thomas Kutys were wrapping up a day's work on the Hudson River.

The men, along with three of their colleagues, had been traveling down the river to assess the archaeological significance of areas scheduled to be dredged as part of the ongoing removal of PCB-tainted sediment.

Their colleagues were safely on the eastern bank, but Kutys and Harbison were in the flat-bottomed boat when, apparently, it malfunctioned.

Pulled by the current, the boat slipped over the nearby Thompson Island Dam and overturned, pitching both men into the 38-degree water.

Kutys managed to swim downstream to Thompson Island and call for help. Harbison wasn't as lucky.

The Lambertville, N.J. man was pronounced dead later that night at Glens Falls Hospital.

Both men were reportedly wearing life jackets, officials said.

Harbison was an employee of URS Corp., a California-based engineering company and a subcontractor for General Electric Co. He was hired to assess archaeological sites.

Recently, he was studying the remnants of the original Fort Edward after a contractor accidentally removed some of the old fort's timbers from the riverbank.

Kutys was treated at Glens Falls Hospital and later released, GE and State Police officials said.

Authorities continue to investigate the accident. On Wednesday, State Police investigators interviewed Kutys and his three colleagues, who witnessed the boat going over the dam.

It remains unclear why the boat failed to function properly. The craft was still underwater as of late Wednesday, according to State Police.

Mark Behan, of Behan Communications and a spokesman for General Electric, said the crew was finishing work for the day when the accident occurred.

The boat was being used to ferry the workers to land that wasn't accessible by car or by foot, Behan said.

"To the best of our knowledge, they had completed their work for the day and were heading back to Fort Edward," Behan said.

Sunset on Tuesday was at 4:28 p.m., and the first emergency call for the accident came shortly after 5 p.m. to the Saratoga County Sheriff's Office.

Behan said GE, which is paying for the $780 million cleanup expected to last six years, would conduct a safety review of the event.

"Safety has been a paramount concern for GE right from the outset and the construction of the dewatering facilities," Behan said. "We've conducted safety briefings and training programs on a daily basis for all of our contractors and, as a result of that, the project has a had a remarkably good safety record."

The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration is also looking into the accident, Behan confirmed.

"OSHA will be in touch with URS because URS is the employer," Behan said. "We're cooperating with URS and all of the authorities in investigating the incident."

In May, a contractor working for General Electric - conducting a wildlife study - was stranded in the middle of the river after his kayak capsized. Emergency workers rescued him, uninjured.

The first phase of the dredging project was completed in October, and the second phase is expected to start in 2011.

Work crews remain in the area, backfilling parts of the river with clean sediment. No archaeological survey work was being performed on Wednesday, Behan said.

Environmental Protection Agency spokeswoman Kristen Skopeck said others who are working on the project were shocked by the accident.

"It's a very sad time for us working on the dredging project. We're a really close group," she said. "To lose one of our own in this horrible situation is just devastating."

URS, in a statement issued through a spokeswoman, offered its condolences to Harbison's family.

"URS is saddened by this tragedy, and our hearts go out to the family and friends of the deceased," the firm's statement read.

Posted in Local on Thursday, November 19, 2009 12:00 pm Updated: 12:44 pm. | Tags: Dredging, Fatal Accident, Hudson River,

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