Father drowns trying to rescue children at Joe Pool Lake

By Sarah Bahari

sbahari@star-telegram.com

From the beach of Joe Pool Lake in Grand Prairie, Jesus Castaneda watched as the flotation device his three children played on flipped over.

According to Grand Prairie police, Castaneda and the children's mother ran to the lake and jumped into the 10-feet-deep water at Lynn Creek Park, near the B-Loop Swimming Area, to try to save their children.

The three children, mother and a bystander who assisted made it safely to shore, police said. Castaneda, 32, slipped beneath the water's surface and was pulled from the water unresponsive 40 minutes later by the Grand Prairie Fire Department dive team. He died at the hospital.

Castaneda was one of three people who apparently drowned this weekend across North Texas: two at Joe Pool Lake and one at Lake Lewisville.

Dive crews had not yet found the bodies of the other two people, whose names were not released.

At Joe Pool Lake, a man and woman had just finished tubing behind their boat, which stopped about 300 yards from Jet Ski Beach. When the boat started to drift, the man helped the woman into the boat, Grand Prairie police said.

The boat started and its propeller became entangled in the rope that had been pulling the inner-tube. As the boat drifted to shore, the man slipped beneath the surface of the water.

At Lake Lewisville, a 34-year-old man fell from a boat Saturday night near Oakland Park. Crews spent Sunday looking for him and planned to resume the search today, a game warden with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department said.

None of the people were wearing life vests, authorities said.

Drowning is the second-leading cause of unintentional injury death for children ages 1 to 14 years, and the fifth-leading cause for people of all ages, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that children 4 and older take swimming lessons and says lessons as early as age 1 could be beneficial.

In Texas in 2011, 90 children drowned, according to the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services. That same year, 32 people died in boating accidents statewide, according to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.

"Our two biggest safety tips are, wear a personal flotation device, and do not operate a boat if you've been drinking," said Mike Cox, a spokesman with parks and wildlife. "A lot of adults don't think it's cool to have a life vest on, but statistics show they save lives."

Sarah Bahari, 817-390-7056

Twitter: @sarahbfw