Friday, July 31, 2015

Eight people injured when two boats collided in Otisfield, Maine

Otisfield boat accident NEWS CENTER


OTISFIELD, Maine (NEWS CENTER) -- 

Eight people, including two children, were injured when two boats crashed into each other around 12:30 Thursday afternoon on Thompson Lake in Otisfield, Game Wardens said.

Maine Warden service says 6 of the 8 injured have been released from the hospital. They also say the yhe 2 juveniles that remain in the hospital appear to be stable and they are being treated and monitored due to their injuries.
Lt. Adam Gormely said a 9-year-old boy from Massachusetts was taken by helicopter to the hospital with critical injuries.

One of the boats was carrying six people, with one person water skiing behind it, wardens said.

The other boat had a man and his 9- and 10-year-old grandsons in it. The three of them were ejected when the boats collided. Witnesses said the unmanned boat kept moving, and slammed into the trees on the lake shore.

"I heard people yelling for help," Dana French, who heard the two boats hit from his lakefront camp, said.

A man who Gormely called a "Good Samaritan" went out in his boat to help the people in the water. He took them to a convenience store on the lake.

"One kid was bleeding out the side of his, like the side of his face was all bloody," Jessica Mason, the owner of the New Outpost, said. "His life jacket had blood on it. The other one had a busted open lip and I think his wrist was broken also."

Game Wardens spent the afternoon reconstructing the crash to figure out what caused it.