The cool waters of the Kearsley Creek may be a welcome summer destination for locals to beat the heat, but a recent dip nearly proved fatal for one visitor.
On the afternoon of July 23, three area youths were fishing and swimming near the Atlas Mill Pond discharge culvert east of the Perry Road Bridge. The top of the steel culvert, which locals use as a diving platform, towers about 15 feet over the Kearsley Creek, which flows east from the mill pond.
Trenton Bouck, 14, a Goodrich High School freshman, was among the youths in the water that afternoon.
‘From the water tube you can jump in like a ‘cannonball,? but you can’t dive in headfirst, it’s too shallow, not to mention there are several big rocks just under the water surface that you could hit. We warned the others about diving in that area. It’s pretty deep right in the center. Just run and jump out a little and you’re just fine going feet first.?
Not heeding the warnings from the others, a visitor to the area dove off the bridge into the creek.
‘The kid dove in the water headfirst and when he came up I could see he was bleeding from his head,? said Bouck. ‘So I waded out there and helped him back to shore. One of my friends took his shirt off and we wrapped it around his head’in just a few minutes it was all soaked in blood. The kid thought he was fine’he thought he had just bumped his head’but he wobbled when he walked. So one of my friends ran to the neighbors and got an Ace bandage. He could walk, but we still needed to help him over the guardrail.?
Bouck said the young man was taken to an area hospital by ambulance where he was treated for head lacerations and shoulder injuries. He was released on Friday.
‘It’s a great place to swim and fish, but you have to be careful there,? added Bouck. ‘I’m glad he’s OK.?