Boating accident appears to be alcohol related

A ski boat, occupied by two persons, appeared to have lost control prior to colliding with a dock and dry-docked wakeboard boat at 22498 Whirlaway Ct., on the Main Lake. The accident occurred on Saturday, March 21, at approximately 3 p.m.

According to one witness, the female passenger walked up the ramp with paramedics and appeared to be okay; however, someone else said she seemed to have sustained a shoulder injury.

Witness Wendi Brassard said that it was an “older couple” on the boat; and that the driver claimed to have “lost steering.”

Art Femister, who provided this photo, said he and his wife were boating when they noticed the crime tape around the dock. He says, “I won’t speculate on what happened, but if you look at the area from an overhead view or by boat you’ll see it’s one of the widest points of the Main Lake and yesterday was a clear, calm day. So who knows how they ended up on a dock at what had to be high speed.”

Art adds, “You’ll see the blue bimini top of the small boat wrapped around the outboard engine. It appears that as they hit the dock they sheared off one of the large square steel struts that hold up the boat cover, which must have moved up into the air and caught the bimini top and sheared it off before the strut came to a rest inside the boat.”

An attempt to reach the homeowner whose dock and boat were hit was unsuccessful.

Lt. Earl Quinata of the Canyon Lake Police Department said, “Officers contacted the driver and the passenger of the boat. No one else was involved.” The police report states that “the passenger sustained minor injuries . . . The driver, Robert Phillips, was subsequently arrested for operating a vessel while under the influence of an alcoholic beverage,” or Boating Under the Influence (BUI).




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