Boat passenger dies on weekend trip

INDIAN PASS — A man on a weekend fishing trip with his family died after a set of waves rolled their boat, wildlife officials said Sunday.

James Pullen, 82, of Titus, Ala., was pronounced dead Saturday at George E. Weems Memorial Hospital in Apalachicola, said Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission spokesman Stan Kirkland.

Pullen and his wife, Emmer Pullen, were about 300 yards offshore near Indian Pass in their son-in-law Charles Cummings' boat, Kirkland said. Also in the boat were Cummings' wife, 49-year-old Ada Cummings, and family friend Sarah Paris, 50.

The others were treated for minor injuries after the incident.

It began about 2 p.m. Eastern time Saturday, when the 57-year-old Charles Cummings, seated in the 18-foot boat's front pedestal seat, saw the boat was about to take on three waves.

"He tried to crank the boat, couldn't get it cranked," Kirkland said. "And the boat rolled."

Everyone went in the water, and none were wearing life jackets, he said. The Pullens apparently couldn't swim. They clung to the overturned boat instead.

But James Pullen had a history of heart trouble and a Pacemaker, Kirkland said. He started having problems almost immediately.

Charles and Ada Cummings grabbed him and swam, pulling him toward shore. They made it there, but Pullen already was limp, Kirkland said.

Others on the beach called 911. Two nurses, who were visiting the area from Georgia, started CPR. It wasn't enough, as Pullen was pronounced dead at the hospital a short time later.

There was no indication any alcohol was involved, and Kirkland said no charges were expected.

He said the Pullens' youngest son was killed about 2 weeks ago in a hit-and-run crash in Alabama. This trip, a visit to the family's retreat in Gulf County, "was kind of a getaway for them, after everything that had happened," Kirkland said.

Pullen's death came a day after three others were killed in an area boating accident. On Friday, a husband and wife in their 70s and another family member in her 60s, all from Daphne, Ala., were killed in a glancing collision in Choctawhatchee Bay off Okaloosa Island.

They weren't wearing life jackets, either, FWC officials said.