9-Year-Old Boy Identified Who Died in Ocean City Boat Accident

OCEAN CITY, MD — A 9-year-old New Jersey boy who died when he fell from a boat near Ocean City, Maryland, and was hit by the craft’s propeller, has been identified by authorities.

Kaden Frederick of Howell, NJ, was sitting on the bow of the rented pontoon boat when he lost his balance and slipped into the water, said Candy Thomson, the public information officer for the Maryland Department of Natural Resources Police, who are investigating the incident.

The youth was not wearing a life jacket, Thomson said.

Reports that a second child was injured in the incident were erroneous, she said. "There was never another child in the water."

The accident happened shortly before 3 p.m. Wednesday, Thomson said. The pontoon boat, which had 17 people on board including Frederick, was sailing on Sinepunxent Bay, just south of the Ocean City Inlet and near the northern end of Assateague State Park at the time.

"He was seated and his legs were dangling over the water, and he just lost his balance," Thomson said. He was struck multiple times by the pontoon boat's propellor, she said.

As family members pulled the boy from the water, a group of first responders on a tour boat that happened to be passing by rushed to the pontoon boat to try to save the boy's life, Thomson said.

"There were two registered nurses, an EMT and two out-of-state state troopers," she said. "They tried to revive him but they were unsuccessful."

Kaden was taken to Atlantic General Medical Center in West Ocean City, Thomson said. An autopsy is scheduled to be conducted by the state medical examiner's office to determine the cause of death.

Thomson said authorities are investigating how many people were supposed to be on the pontoon boat, which was rented from Under the Bridge Water Sports in Ocean City by a group of family and friends.

Alcohol does not appear to be a factor in the accident, nor is speed likely an issue.

"Pontoon boats are like big floating bathtubs," she said. "They don't go very fast, but they also don't stop very fast."

The problem, she said, is "you have a lot of inexperienced boaters who are there for vacation, and Ocean City waters are tricky, especially if you don't have good boating skills."

The waters in Sinepuxent Bay are fairly shallow, and there are all kinds of sandbars, she said. Additionally, there are all kinds of boats using the water, from canoes and kayaks to the high-speed cigarette boats.

"Your head should be on a swivel," she said.

— New Jersey Patch Editor Karen Wall contributed reporting to this story.

»Photo from Ocean City live cam