High water and lack of common sense. 

https://www.fox32chicago.com/news/crews-to-continue-search-for-missing-fishermen-in-kankakee-river-friday-morning

Sadness

From the article:

 

“They had life jackets in the boat, they didn't use the life-jackets,” the witnesses said.

 

Did it to themselves. A tragedy...totally preventable if they used a bit of common sense.

Very Sad!

There’s a lesson there for all of us. 
 

 

 

 

Mike

 

always hate to hear about this kind of stuff. ☹️

2 hours ago, MN Fisher said:

From the article:

 

“They had life jackets in the boat, they didn't use the life-jackets,” the witnesses said.

 

Did it to themselves. A tragedy...totally preventable if they used a bit of common sense.

It is ALWAYS the same story, over and over again, isn't it?

Sad. This was preventable as well.

I guess all accidents are preventable (that's why they call them accidents) but, reading the article, it's not clear to me what caused the boat to flip.

5 minutes ago, MGF said:

I guess all accidents are preventable (that's why they call them accidents) but, reading the article, it's not clear to me what caused the boat to flip.

My guess is they were close enough to the dam that they got sucked into the backwash.

I thought it said he ran over the anchor rope with the prop. I’m guessing that left him powerless and he got sucked in like @slonezp said or the sudden stop made a wave come over the transom in swift water. I do know that running over a rope causes a sudden Stop because I’ve done it

Must've been horrific for them getting out of control like that.

A sad story, indeed.

Our rivers are high in IL. A week ago we got 5 inches of rain in about a 36hr period. That, combined with whatever rainfall Wisconsin got has some of our rivers in the northern part of the state near flood stage. Unlike many southern impoundments, our rivers are relatively shallow. The damns are used for flood control rather than generating power. I can't comment on the Kankakee as far as levels as the town is about 90 minutes south of me. Both the Des Plaines and Fox rivers are high. My home water is part of the Fox and the river near the dams is currently closed to boating as a result of last weeks rain.