An outing for a Boy Scout troop turned tragic Saturday morning when a 12-year-old boy died while playing in the Olympic National Forest in Washington state.
Deputy Joe Nole with the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office says the boys were trying to roll a tree into the lake, and that's when it hooked on one of the boy's jackets and then rolled over him.
The Scouts were on a boulder field, so the ground was unforgiving as the log rolled over the victim, who sustained a massive head injury.
Deputies say the accident happened about 9 a.m. Saturday at Lena Lake, a remote but popular camping area off Highway 101 near the small community of Eldon.
The boy's father was among the four adults and ten scouts on the trip.
It took search and rescue teams about three hours to reach the scene by foot. A helicopter airlift was considered, but bad weather eliminated that option. Deputies say arriving earlier would not have made a difference in this case.
About three dozen search and rescue personnel, including firefighters and EMTs, responded to the accident from Mason and Jefferson Counties. Fire District 17 was the first agency on the scene.
Troop leaders activated an emergency locator beacon that was picked up by an emergency monitoring center in Texas, which called Washington State Emergency Management officials, who contacted the sheriff's office.
One adult in the party also hiked about three-miles from the lake to a parking lot. He then drove eight miles for a cell phone signal to call 911.
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