A 46-year-old Davis County father drowned Sunday, August 30, after the boat carrying him, his 15-year-old son, his father, and his sister overturned and sank at Echo Reservoir in Summit County. Jeff Stone helped his father and sister get safely off the boat before he went under, and his son, Robbie Stone, watched him die.
The Summit County Sheriff's Office received a 911 call around 11:30 a.m. reporting an overturned fishing boat sinking with four people in the water, according to KSL News. A passing boat of water skiers found the family, pulled all four aboard, began CPR on Stone, and brought the group to the Echo boat ramp, according to KPCW. Stone was pronounced dead at the boat ramp despite bystanders' resuscitation efforts. The three other family members were taken to a nearby hospital for treatment and later released.
Robbie Stone told KSL he watched water start gushing in when it reached the back of the boat, just before it flipped. Everyone aboard had a life jacket, but Jeff Stone was unable to reach his after entering the water while focused on getting his family members to safety in his final moments, the station reported.
A Widow's Unanswered Question
Megan Stone, Jeff's wife of 22 years, said the family still does not know exactly what caused the boat to overturn. She noted the boat had a new engine and believes it may have been too heavy for the vessel, per the same KSL report. Federal boat-safety rules under 33 CFR Part 183 require monohull powerboats under 20 feet to display a capacity plate specifying maximum weight and horsepower limits, since exceeding those limits can compromise stability and cause flooding or capsizing.
Megan Stone told KSL that officials ruled Jeff's death an accidental drowning after he suffered a head injury when the boat overturned. “No one has an answer for why the boat is at the bottom of Echo Reservoir,” she said, according to the outlet's report. Summit County Sheriff's Office spokesperson Skyler Talbot told KPCW that deputies are classifying the incident as an apparent water vessel crash with no indications of foul play, and the sheriff's office said Monday that the investigation into what caused the boat to flip remains in its early stages. KSL reported it had not received an immediate response from the sheriff's office about the status of that investigation.
Remembered as a Father Who Always Showed Up
Robbie Stone described his father as an angel to everybody, especially to him, and said Jeff's legacy was defined by how he treated other people. Father and son shared a love of watching the Utah Jazz, fishing, and attending Monster Jam events together. Jeff Stone worked as a truck driver for Geneva Rock and would have turned 47 on Tuesday, September 8. His family has established a GoFundMe to help cover expenses following his death.
A Reservoir With a Painful History
Echo Reservoir covers roughly 1,394 surface acres in Summit County and has been managed as Echo State Park since 2018 under a partnership between Utah State Parks and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, according to the Utah Division of Water Quality. It's not the first time the reservoir has been the site of a fatal boating tragedy — in August 2023, 3-year-old Walter Greer died there after falling overboard into a boat propeller, an incident that also prompted community support campaigns and public safety warnings, per KPCW's 2023 reporting.
Part of a Statewide Surge in Drownings
Stone's death comes amid a broader spike in open-water drownings across Utah. The Utah Division of Outdoor Recreation and the Utah Office of the Medical Examiner announced in July that at least eight open-water drowning deaths had occurred statewide in 2026 before August, with roughly 90% of boating-related drowning victims not wearing life jackets, according to Gephardt Daily. State officials emphasized that open-water drownings are overwhelmingly preventable when life jackets are worn.
Under Utah Division of Outdoor Recreation rules, motorized vessels must carry at least one accessible Coast Guard-approved life jacket per passenger, but state law only mandates that children 12 and under wear one at all times — adults are free to leave theirs stowed. That gap helps explain why boaters like Stone often have flotation devices on board without wearing them. In July, the division partnered with the University of Utah School of Public Affairs to launch a statewide Life Jacket Behavior Survey examining why adult boaters frequently skip wearing personal flotation devices, according to the Jordan River Commission. Researchers involved in that effort noted that drowning risks for males increase significantly after age 15.
Under Utah Code 73-18-13, vessel operators or owners involved in an accident resulting in death, injury, or property damage exceeding $2,000 must file a formal Boating Accident Report with the Division of Outdoor Recreation within 10 days; records are used to update the state's annual boating casualty statistics. Whether a new engine contributed to the Echo Reservoir capsizing remains part of the ongoing sheriff's office investigation, and the cause of the accident has not yet been determined.
