Boating accident claims life in Rankin

JOHN THOMPSON

A Rankin Inlet man drowned during a boating accident on Aug. 2.

During the early afternoon Michael Sammurtok, 42, climbed aboard a small plywood boat with his nephew, Jonathan, and began to paddle from the shores of Itivia, about one km from Rankin Inlet.

They headed for a larger boat, moored about 75 metres out, when Sammurtok, seated in the back, lost his balance and fell backwards into the bay. The boat began to fill with water.

His nephew swam for the larger boat while Sammurtok stayed with the smaller one as it sank. He tried to bring the larger boat alongside his uncle and to throw a line to him, but with no luck.

Joachim Kavik, an elder from Rankin Inlet, saw the two men in the water and arrived to help in a smaller boat. But by the time he and the nephew had pulled Sammurtok from the water into the moored boat and took him to shore, he had lost consciousness and wasn’t breathing.

Police and ambulance were called by CB radio from shore. When paramedics arrived they tried unsuccessfully to revive Sammurtok with CPR and artificial respiration. He was pronounced dead around 1:30 p.m.

Police said that alcohol wasn’t a factor, and that life jackets were not used.