Man drowns after falling off dock into 43 feet of water at SC lake, coroner says

A 56-year-old man died after falling from a dock at a South Carolina lake over the weekend, officials said.

Louis Eddie Crawford was with friends at Lake Hartwell when he hit his head and plunged into about 43 feet of water, the Anderson County Coroner’s Office said in a news release.

Anderson County Technical Rescue Team divers arrived at the lake’s Portman Marina dock just after 9 p.m. Sunday and pulled Crawford to the surface. By that time, officials said he had been under water for roughly 48 minutes.

Crawford was taken to the AnMed Health Medical Center hospital in Anderson, where he was pronounced dead, according to the coroner’s office.

Officials said Crawford lived in the Greenville County community of Taylors.

“The death has been ruled Accidental due to Freshwater Drowning,” and alcohol may have played a role in the incident, according to the coroner’s office. The case was still under investigation as of Monday morning.

Lake Hartwell is a human-made body of water that spans about 56,000 acres along the Georgia border. The area offers fishing, boating and other recreational activities.