BRADY TWP — The early-morning boat crash on the Allegheny River near East Brady which killed three men and injured a fourth Saturday happened on a relatively safe, but busy stretch of the river, authorities said.

An investigation into the crash, which killed Chad Wilson, 34, of Prospect; Joe Wrbas Jr., 48, of Butler; and Timothy Jones, 62, of Tarentum, is ongoing.

Clarion County Coroner Terry Shaffer said that autopsies done Monday in Erie determined that two of the men, Wrbas and Wilson, died of blunt force trauma they suffered during the crash.

Wrbas suffered injuries to his face and neck, Shaffer said, and “probably died almost instantly” from a fracture to the C3 vertebrae of his spinal cord.

Wilson suffered injuries to his head and trunk, Shaffer said, which was the major cause of his death but also was complicated by aspiration of river water into his lungs.

Jones also suffered major injuries, Shaffer said, but died of drowning.

The deaths of all three men were ruled accidental, Shaffer said. His office still is awaiting the results of toxicology reports that will take at least eight weeks to be done.

Capt. Tom Edwards of the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission’s regional office in Crawford County, said that office is still “sifting through” information from the scene of the crash in Brady Township near East Brady.

Greg Pochron, who is leading the office’s investigation, has said questions remain about whether speed and/or alcohol were factors in the crash, which is believed to have occurred between 1:30 and 6:30 a.m. Saturday.

Edwards declined to discuss any conclusions regarding the crash.

“It’s a very tragic incident, and there’s obviously a lot of information,” Edwards said Monday.

He said the crash happened on a relatively safe stretch of the river that has a “very large boating pool” because of lock number nine down river. The lock — a mechanized dam which can be opened or closed — increases the river’s depth, Edwards said, creating a safer environment for boaters.

“It’s not like you’re boating where there’s a lot of riffles and runs,” Edwards said. “It’s a heavily utilized (area) with a lot of recreational boat traffic.”

He said the office didn’t immediately have specific information on the depth and width of the river where the crash occurred.

The crash happened at a time of year when that stretch of river has an increase in activity, said Susan Buechele, East Brady secretary/treasurer.

Recent rain has made the Allegheny “higher, swifter and dirtier,” than normal, she said, but the river pool remains extremely popular because its depth allows for water skiing, pontoon boats and Jet Skis, and a nearby public boat launch in Bradys Bend Township provides easy river access.

“Activity on the river, I would say, doubles, if not triples, on the weekends,” Buechele said. “And the weather’s been so hot this summer that we’ve had more than the usual amount of activity on the river.”

Edwards said Pochron’s report on the crash could take up to a week and a half to compile. The report will be reviewed by the commission’s regional office in Meadville before being sent to Harrisburg for a final review.

Initially Pochron said it appeared that the boat was traveling along the river bank when it hit land, caromed along the river bank and flipped over, trapping three of the men near the back of the boat. The fourth man, who was flown to Allegheny General Hospital, was apparently trapped under the front of the craft and survived in a pocket of air, Pochron said.

Emergency officials from Clarion County, which initially fielded the 911 call from a woman who discovered the overturned boat about 6:30 a.m., said that stretch of the Allegheny represents a challenging area to manage emergency responses because it divides Clarion and Armstrong counties. However, Ron Wolbert, the director of Clarion County 911, said the two counties work closely to ensure emergency services are readily available.

The counties have specialized water rescue agencies they can call upon and several fire departments that have specialized equipment and training, as well as the Butler Water Rescue Team.

However, water-based emergency calls are rare for Clarion, Wolbert said. So far this year, he said, 911 has fielded eight calls that are watercraft or water-related, Wolbert said.

“That could be something as simple as a flooded basement or something like that,” he said. “We have very minimal incidents as far as what’s going to happen on the river.”

Edwards said the triple fatality nearly doubled the number of boating fatalities in Pennsylvania this year, and represented the fifth, sixth and seventh boating-related deaths this year. Last year the commission investigated four boating-related deaths, including one on Oct. 29 on Lake Arthur.

From 2005 to 2015 Pennsylvania had 146 fatalities from 131 boating accidents, according to a report by the commission. Four of those deaths occurred in Butler County — all at Lake Arthur.

Since 2005 there have been eight boating-related fatalities on the Allegheny River, according to the commission.

Buechele said the accident on Saturday shocked and saddened the normally festive community of boaters and visitors on the river near East Brady. She said it’s been more than 25 years since the last fatality on that stretch of the river.

“It’s really a tragedy. The majority of the time everything on the river is happy and upbeat,” she said. “I noticed that on Sunday there really wasn’t the same crazy activity. It’s just really sad.

“The river is a place for so many good times, but it’s sad that something like this had to happen.”

Wilson, who was a 2001 graduate of Slippery Rock High School, was a manager for Ibis Tek in Butler.

The Jay Bryan Funeral Home in Prospect is handling his funeral arrangements.

His obituary is on Page 6.

Funeral information for the other victims has not been released.