
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, June 29, 1990                   TAG: 9006290409
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B1   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: New River Valley bureau
DATELINE: PULASKI                                LENGTH: Short

RICHMOND BOY, 2, IS DROWNING VICTIM

A 2-year-old Richmond boy visiting his grandfather at Claytor Lake drowned Wednesday afternoon when a tractor he was sitting on rolled into the lake.

Edward White King was pronounced dead at Radford Community Hospital after his parents' attempts to revive him were unsuccessful.

King and his parents, Donald and Anne, had been visiting Anne's father, Jack White, at his home in the secluded Dublin Hollow section of Claytor Lake, said Lt. Ralph Dobbins of the Pulaski County Sheriff's Department.

King had been playing alone in the backyard while his father went to make a phone call. When Donald King returned from inside the house, he could not find his son, Dobbins said.

"No one saw it happen," he said.

Donald King noticed that the small tractor, which White used to cut the grass, was missing. He assumed White had taken the boy for a ride, but he and his wife continued looking around the house, Dobbins said.

After about 30 minutes of searching, the parents found the boy in the water, he said.

Dobbins said it appeared Edward had managed to climb onto the tractor and must have kicked or pulled it out of gear.

Because it was parked on an incline, the tractor rolled into the lake and tossed the boy into the water, he said.

Keywords:
FATALITY

by CNB