A woman is dead and five other people, including a toddler, are in hospital tonight after the boat they were in crashed into an island.
The accident happened on Six Mile Lake late last night. Police, paramedics and firefighters were all called to the north end of the lake, near Sanctuary Road.
Just after 11 p.m. August 3, a boat slammed into an unmarked island on the lake. The front of the boat was damaged from the impact. The crashed killed one woman, and injured five others, and Peter Van Der Helm heard it from his cottage.
“We just got back from the fireworks display and were sitting in our living room when we heard a bang,” he says. “We thought a chair had fallen over or something but it wasn't until we saw the blue lights of the police boat that we realized something had happened.”
There were six people in the boat when it hit the rocky island. Beverly MacDonald, 70, from Kingston was killed in the crash, while the driver of the boat was taken to St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto with serious injuries. Four other passengers including a 15-month-old boy were taken to Georgian Bay General Hospital.
OPP Const. Don James says earlier in the evening, the driver of the boat got lost on the lake. He called a friend to meet him and guide him home.
“As they were travelling they approached an island, which the friend appeared to know about and they pulled around the island and the second vessel didn't see the island and unfortunately they crashed into the island,” James says.
Van Der Helm says Six Mile Lake can be a difficult lake to navigate, especially in the dark.
Police are still looking into the circumstances surrounding this crash and are trying to figure out how fast the boat was travelling when it hit the island. At this point though, they say alcohol doesn't appear to be a factor in this accident.
