Sunday, May 17, 2015

WOMAN IN CRITICAL CONDITION AFTER TWO BOATS COLLIDE ON GEIST RESERVOIR IN INDIANA









MAY 17, 2015

INDIANAPOLIS, IN

Indiana conservation officers are investigating a boating crash on Geist Reservoir that sent one woman to the hospital in critical condition.

A runabout boat collided with a pontoon boat on the southern end of Geist Reservoir about 5:10 p.m. Sunday, according to a Department of Natural Resources Division of Law Enforcement news release.

The accident happened just east of East 86th and Fall Creek Road.

The driver of the pontoon boat, a 52-year-old woman, was taken to St. Vincent Indianapolis Hospital with critical injuries. A passenger, her 55-year-old husband, was thrown from the pontoon boat and was not injured, according to a news release from Capt. Rita Reith of the Indianapolis Fire Department.

The operator and occupants of the runabout, two adults and five children, were not injured, Reith said.

Witnesses said the Sea Doo Challenger 1800 was traveling about 50 mph.  The pontoon boat was traveling at about 15 miles per hour.  They said the fast-traveling runaround boat broadsided the driver's side of the pontoon boat and flew 15 feet in the air, over the pontoon boat, before landing back in the water, Reith said.

The impact critically injured the woman driving the pontoon boat, Reith said. No one on the Sea Doo was injured. The driver, a 38-year-old man, said he saw the pontoon boat and made an effort to avoid it but was not successful.

An accident reconstruction expert was assisting with the investigation, the DNR release said.

Multiple calls to 911 offered different addresses for the crash, which Reith said complicated the rescue effort.