POLK COUNTY Ore. (KPTV) – An Oregon family is grieving after their son was killed in a kayaking accident on the Willamette River in Polk County, Thursday night.
The family said they are still working to process the sudden loss but want to remember their loved one as the adventurous, generous, and kind person he was to everyone he came in contact with. Those are all characteristics his family said came easy to him as a family medicine doctor.
The Polk County Sheriff’s Office reports that 50-year-old Jacob Jackson was on the Willamette when his kayak collided with the Buena Vista Ferry after he had a malfunction with his steering mechanism.
Jacob Jackson’s mother, Melodie Jackson, said he was with a friend and they were using a type of kayak that was unfamiliar to her son.
“The kayaks were not the ones where you sit up and have a paddle, they had pedals of some kind, and the kayak he was …