Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
6 August 2006
By Jonathan D. Silver and Cindi Lash
Darrell Sapp, Post-Gazette - Water sprays over the hull of the 21-foot Sea Ray as it bobs in front of the Highland Park Dam on the Allegheny River. The operator, Daniel Stokes, and his stepdaughter, Christen Gerhard, died after the boat went over the dam.
Driving the 21-foot pleasure boat along the Allegheny River on July 1, Daniel R. Stokes was in charge, for better or worse, and everyone else was just along for a wild ride.
Plans called for an enjoyable jaunt that Saturday evening from New Kensington to The Point. But on board, tempers flared between Mr. Stokes and his wife, Susan. Passengers unnerved by Mr. Stokes' erratic driving chided him to slow down. He complied, but only briefly.
Forty-five minutes after setting off, the pleasure cruise turned into a terror ride as the boat flew over the Highland Park dam, leading to the deaths of Mr. Stokes, 42, of Plum, and his stepdaughter, Christen Gerhard, 19, of Mount Pleasant.
Mr. Stokes either ignored or was oblivious to the many warning signs posted on the river above the dam.
Survivors are plagued by anxiety and anger. Relations among some have become strained. Most have hired lawyers.
Why an experienced boater drove the craft to its doom might never be determined. Criminal charges are unlikely, as the person responsible for the accident is dead.
A final report has not been completed by the lead investigator, the State Fish and Boat Commission, which is awaiting toxicology results to determine whether Mr. Stokes was drunk.
"All indications point to this being clearly an example of human error and poor judgment. How much of that was influenced, potentially, by alcohol has yet to be determined, but no matter how you look at it, it boils down to somebody making some very poor decisions," said Dan Tredinnick, the commission's spokesman.
Traveling with his wife, her two children from another marriage, the children's dates and another couple, Mr. Stokes and his party were headed for the Pittsburgh Three Rivers Regatta and the Pirates 7:05 p.m. game against the Detroit Tigers.
The ingredients were hardly there for a fun family outing. Tensions ran high between Mr. Stokes, a general contractor with a history of drinking problems, and his wife of nearly two years, Susan, 44, a nurse at Mercy Hospital.
Neither of Mrs. Stokes' children, Christen and Kalin Gerhard, 18, were fond of their mother's husband. Ms. Gerhard's boyfriend, Ryan Swartz, 25, was with her. Mr. Gerhard's girlfriend, Julie Conforti, 18, was also there, as was his childhood friend, Jason Austin, 18, a cancer survivor. Mr. Austin brought his girlfriend, Karlee Tucci, 16. All the teenagers either attended or had graduated from Hempfield Area High School.
When they came aboard, loose beer cans lay in a cooler on the boat, Mr Gerhard said. He brought along a case of Coors. Everyone had at least one beer, Mr. Gerhard said, though he added that no one was falling-down drunk.
As Mr. Stokes guided the white Sea Ray downriver toward the Highland Park Bridge and Lock & Dam No. 2, he leaned hard on the throttle. Since putting in at Logans Ferry Marina, Mr. Stokes had disturbed some of his passengers by speeding up and slowing down, at one point bowling his wife over, according to several accounts.
"Dan was driving like a madman," said Mr. Gerhard, the only survivor who agreed to an interview.
"It wasn't a happy boating day, I can tell you," said Mr. Austin's mother, Jackie, who related his account of the trip. "He was being, for lack of a better word, goofy with the throttle. There was back and forth with the throttle, fast and slow."
There also was arguing. It was not long into the trip before marital strife became obvious to the passengers. There was disagreement about whether the final destination should be the regatta or the baseball game.
"Jason said it was uncomfortable, and the kids were trying to talk over it," Mrs. Austin said.
Approaching a railroad bridge and the Highland Park Bridge, Mr. Stokes should have eased his craft toward the Pittsburgh side of the river so he could go through the lock. Instead, he went straight, slicing through the water nearly in the middle of the river.
Mr. Gerhard said he remembered asking Mr. Stokes where the next lock was.
"I could see the two bridges. He told me the lock was down farther. He told me it was around the bend," Mr. Gerhard said. "It looked like a straightaway. We couldn't tell the dam was there. It looked like the river kept going."
Such is the optical illusion created by being upriver from the fixed-crest dam. There does not appear to be any dropoff.
"I said, 'You can go faster,' " Mr. Gerhard recalled. "He just gave it gas and kept going."
Warning buoys flashed past. Mrs. Austin said Miss Tucci saw a sign alerting boaters to the dam. People on shore screamed to get his attention. A lock worker sounded a whistle. Mr. Gerhard said he never heard any whistle blasts.
"A boat full of eight people with the music blasting, you can't hear them," he said.
As the craft roared along, Jeff Waldo, a veteran boater, was chatting with fishermen on a spit of land on the Sharpsburg side of the river. Mr. Waldo, 42, of Bethel Park, heard screams.
"I said to those fishermen, 'Oh, my God,. That boat is going to go over the dam,' " Mr. Waldo recalled. He said he did not see the boat's operator try to veer.
Both Mrs. Austin and Mr. Gerhard said Mr. Stokes cut the wheel, trying to steer away from the dam in a last-ditch maneuver.
"I felt like the boat slowed down and turned, then it straightened," Mr. Gerhard said. "That was probably the best thing Dan did. If we would have hit that sideways, the whole bottom of the boat probably would have gotten ripped off."
Mrs. Austin said her son told her that Mr. Stokes went full throttle.
From the lock, an Army Corps of Engineers employee watched the boat go beneath the Highland Park Bridge.
"At that time, he knew it was not going to stop or turn toward the lock," a Corps report said. "The boat never slowed down."
At the crest of the dam, the Sea Ray left the water and shot forward through the air for 15 feet. Then it dropped. Hard.
Mr. Gerhard and Ms. Conforti had just gone down to the boat's sleeper cabin.
"We were sitting there for no longer than two minutes and we heard everybody screaming," Mr. Gerhard recalled. "I thought we were hitting another boat or the bridge."
It was about 8:15 p.m. On shore, Mr. Waldo dialed 911.
The son of a missionary pastor, Dan Stokes was raised in Palmer, Alaska, where he fished for king salmon and boated on the Kenai River.
"Dan grew up on the river, and the river was no new thing to him," said his father, the Rev. Don R. Stokes.
More importantly, he was no stranger to Lock & Dam No. 2.
"We had locked through that very same lock 25 or 30 times together," the Rev. Stokes said.
Mr. Stokes, a big man at 6 feet, 4 inches tall and more than 200 pounds, played quarterback for his high school football team. He finished his senior year in Fairfax, Va.
By then, his parents had finished their work in sparsely populated Alaska -- "You run out of people," the Rev. Stokes said -- and moved to Tennessee. His son eventually joined them there. He got married, went into construction work and had two children.
The Rev. Stokes, 76, said his son was so friendly that "he never met a stranger." His mother, Christine Stokes, said he would help others to a fault.
But the Rev. Stokes acknowledged another side to his son. He had attitude. He kept things bottled up. And, sometimes, usually after a marital squabble, he would drink too much.
"Every time that he and his wife, in his previous marriage and this one, every time they had a fight, he'd want to get away from everything. And that's when he always got in trouble. That was his weakness."
In Tennessee, Mr. Stokes had a rough time, both in love and with the law. He and his then-wife sought protection-from-abuse orders against each other in 1999. Mr. Stokes was arrested that year for violating the order.
It was the first of at least eight arrests there between 1999 and 2001. Police charged Mr. Stokes with a variety of offenses, including violating a law against habitual motor offenders, driving with a revoked or suspended license, carrying an open container, theft, public intoxication and driving under the influence.
He spent more than seven months in jail, violated his probation and went back behind bars for another 18 months. While he was incarcerated, the divorce from his first wife was finalized. He got out in May 2003 and came to the Pittsburgh area.
Trouble would follow him.
The Sea Ray fell about 12 feet and came down upright, still facing downriver. But the engine stalled, and the hydraulic force created by water flowing over the dam sucked the boat backward.
The river's grip tugged at the boat until it pivoted sideways, bow facing the lock and port side parallel to the dam. Then the hydraulic began pulling the craft toward the lock.
"I've seen the hydraulic of the dam take telephone poles and make them into coconuts this big around," said Bruce R. Kociela, the Corps' lockmaster for the lower Allegheny River locks. "It just chews them up."
The Rev. Stokes said he understood that his son tried furiously to restart the engine.
"He just stood there, trying to start that motor until it was just swamped," he said. He added that he was told by Susan Stokes, "He was just staring straight ahead, trying to start that motor. He never said yea or nay.' "
Passengers were screaming. Mr. Gerhard flipped up a seat in the rear of the boat, found four life preservers and gave them to the women. His mother tried to hand hers back to him, but he resisted. The Rev. Stokes said there were four or five more life preservers on board, but they were not distributed.
"I think he was a hero," Blawnox fire Chief George McBriar said of Mr. Gerhard. "He could have jumped off that boat and taken care of No. 1. He didn't."
Water splashed over the gunwales as the boat bumped against the dam. Mr. Waldo could see passengers huddled on the starboard side, trying to stay away as water slammed five, six, seven times into the port side. When the bow struck the outside wall of the lock chamber, the Sea Ray took on so much water that it flipped over.
"Two seconds later, I grabbed the back of my girlfriend's life vest and we flipped back into the dam, the whole boat did," Mr. Gerhard said. "Once it flipped, I, like, went down, and I just started swimming in circles, and I just started swimming as hard as I could. I thought I was dying."
The Rev. Stokes has long purchased boats, refurbished them and sold them at a profit. On June 24, a week before the accident, he bought the Sea Ray.
The boat was registered with the state under the ownership of Double B Youth Ranch, which operates on the grounds of his Bible Baptist Church in Plum. The Rev. Stokes said the ranch is not affiliated with the church.
The week the boat was registered, there was discord at Daniel Stokes' home. At 12:39 a.m. June 27, Susan Stokes called 911 to report that her husband was drunk and that they were arguing.
Mr. Stokes had run afoul of authorities in Pennsylvania because of his drinking. In October, he was charged with two counts of driving under the influence of alcohol and several traffic infractions after an accident in Oakmont. Police said his blood-alcohol content was 0.214, more than twice the legal limit for driving. He intended to plead guilty this month, court records show.
After arguing with his wife, Mr. Stokes drove toward his father's church. He later told police he was staying at his parents' home on Carrie Ann Drive, a few blocks from his Repp Road home.
About 10:15 p.m., Mrs. Stokes contacted Plum police. She said her husband had been calling her, telling her he wanted to "straighten things out."
Mrs. Stokes said her husband was at a bar. Fearing for her safety, she told police she planned to stay at a motel that night and would file for a PFA. No court record could be found indicating she ever petitioned the court for the protection-from-abuse order.
The Rev. Stokes originally had planned to use the boat for a fishing trip to Erie with his wife. He even ordered four new tires for his trailer to pull the vessel. But his son had another idea.
" 'Dad,' he said, 'Why don't you let us take the boat down to The Point? That'll really help knit the family together,' " the Rev. Stokes recalled. " 'We'll all be together and have a good time.' "
Mr. Gerhard said his mother invited him onto the boat. He decided to go and persuaded Mr. Austin to come along, too.
The Stokeses temporarily stored the boat in a slip at Logans Ferry Marina in New Kensington.
Upriver, the New Kensington Bridge spanned the water. Just out of sight around a bend downriver was Lock & Dam No. 3, the first of two locks boaters have to navigate on their way to The Point. Mr. Stokes would safely pass through that one.
About 7 p.m. July 1, the party gathered at the marina. Ms. Gerhard and her brother had visited their grandmother, Julia Gerhard, in Hempfield that day.
"These last couple of weeks, she was real happy because she got a cat. She had lost her cat. Just before they went to the regatta, she stopped here and left her car here," Mrs. Gerhard said.
After studying cosmetology, Ms. Gerhard had not found a job in her field, so she worked as a waitress at Toad's Logger House, a restaurant in New Stanton. Bartender Shannon Kiefer, 25, described Ms. Gerhard as outgoing and happy.
Ms. Kiefer said Ms. Gerhard had been dating Mr. Swartz on and off for about a year. In June, she moved in with him.
Ms. Gerhard was reluctant to go on the boat with Mr. Stokes, her grandmother said.
"She didn't want to go to the regatta because she didn't like her stepdad. They didn't get along," Mrs. Gerhard said.
Her brother said she was uneasy, simply because her car had worn-out tires and she did not know whether she wanted to spend the night in Pittsburgh. But he persuaded her to go.
"I didn't go out to say goodbye to her because her friends were out there, and I didn't want to interfere," Mrs. Gerhard said. "So they went out and she never came back."
The Rev. Stokes has heard speculation that the glare of the setting sun off the river might have made it difficult for his son to see the warning buoys and signs for the dam.
He has his own theory, one that applies to a boater accustomed to launching at Fox Chapel instead of New Kensington, a boater used to navigating only Lock & Dam No. 2.
"In my mind, he forgot he had to lock through two instead of one," the Rev. Stokes said. "In his mind, you go through one lock and you head for The Point."
Distracted by squabbling, in a rush to get to the Pirates game, unfamiliar with locking through twice, perhaps all those factors undermined Daniel Stokes. His father said everyone aboard was bickering, not just the adults. And then there was the alcohol.
A Pittsburgh police report on the accident noted that Mr. Gerhard, Mr. Austin and Miss Tucci said, during separate interviews, that "they believed Daniel Stokes was under the influence of alcohol because of his actions and slurred speech."
Although investigators have learned that Mr. Stokes drank several beers on the afternoon of the accident, the Rev. Stokes said his son was sober in the afternoon.
"I saw him at 2 or 2:30, and, at that time, he hadn't had anything to drink. I can smell alcohol a mile away, and he was right in my face."
The Rev. Stokes said his daughter-in-law initially told him no one was drinking on the boat. That story changed, he said.
"That was the first thing I said to her that night, 'Susan, was Dan drinking?' She said, 'Dan has never had a drink in front of my children,' '' the Rev. Stokes said. Then, "Susan said to me, when they locked through, that everybody drank a beer on the boat. That was news to us."
Twenty minutes before the accident, emergency responders were called to Lock & Dam No. 2 for youngsters swimming in a section of calm water below the dam. They found nothing. Still, in his fire station, when a new call came in from the river, Blawnox fire Chief McBriar's first thought was about the swimmers. He quickly realized he had a serious situation on his hands.
Chief McBriar responded with personnel from other departments, including Aspinwall, O'Hara, Sharpsburg and Pittsburgh.
Daniel Stokes was found dead in the water. The survivors had a range of injuries. Mr. Austin's liver and spleen were bruised, a police report said. Others were bruised, scratched or cut. Mr. Swartz was said to have problems walking.
It took three days of searching to find Ms. Gerhard's body. She was not wearing a life preserver.
Authorities recovered shoes, foam padding and rope. They found a duffel bag, shredded and empty. The bag was said to have contained thousands of dollars.
Mr. Stokes said he was aware of talk that his son had a large amount of cash with him. He acknowledged he might have carried $1,000 or $2,000, possibly to treat all eight people during the July 4 weekend.
Robert Gerhard, Christen and Kalin's father, said he, too, had heard talk of the money during the search for his daughter. But he told his son he did not want to hear about it.
"I'm just waiting to see what the investigation turns up. Yes, I'm angry. But there's nothing I can do about it," said Robert Gerhard, 48, a truck driver from Ruffs Dale. "Did [Mr. Stokes] do it deliberately? Didn't he see [the dam] because they were arguing? I'll probably never know. It shouldn't have ever happened, but it did and there's nothing I can do about it."
A month later, the survivors still wrestle with sorrow and trauma.
"It's extremely difficult to block the event out. You continually replay it, without any ability to stop it,'' said lawyer Jason Matzus, who represents Miss Tucci.
"There's something very wrong here, and I think the consensus is the boat operator, Mr. Stokes, was an extremely experienced boater, and this was not a mistake that an experienced boater would make, unless there was something else in the picture," said lawyer Cynthia Danel, who represents Mr. Swartz and Mr. Austin. "It may have been drinking. It may have been he was distracted by some other issue. It may have been a malfunction."
(Jonathan D. Silver can be reached at jsilver@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1962. Cindi Lash can be reached at clash@post-gazette.com of 412-263-1973. )