Man drowns in Delaware & Raritan Canal while canoeing

A 26-year-old Plainsboro resident drowned in the Delaware & Raritan Canal on Sunday afternoon after his canoe capsized directly south of campus.

The incident occurred on a stretch of the canal less than one quarter of a mile south of Harrison Street, Princeton Township Police Chief Mark Emann said. The section is on the south side of Lake Carnegie and is south of Jadwin Gymnasium.

The man, originally from India, was in the canoe with his two roommates when it became entangled in low-lying branches and flipped over, Emann explained.

The Township Police received a call around 3:45 p.m. Officers who were out on patrol less than half a mile away reported to the scene immediately, Emann said. By that time, bystanders on the towpath, joined by other boaters, had entered the water and rescued two of the capsized boaters, but they could not retrieve the victim. Neither the victim nor his roommates were wearing life vests when the canoe capsized, though life vests were in the canoe at the time.

Rescue squads from local towns, including East Windsor, Kingston, Plainsboro and Trenton, were called in to help find the victim, Trenton Fire Department Chief John Panacek said.

A dive team from the Trenton Fire Department retrieved the body around 5:30 p.m., he added.

Emann explained that the squad found the victim “in very close proximity to where the boat capsized.”

Emann said that while there have previously been drowning cases, he believed this was the first drowning due to boat accident in the canal that he had seen in his 32 years as a police officer.

Police were still trying to contact the victim’s family as of 8:30 p.m. on Sunday night and did not disclose his identity. The victim was not affiliated with the University.

Several student emergency medical technicians involved in this incident declined to comment, citing privacy concerns.