Leamington boat crash

[HTHM]

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/three-people-missing-lake-erie-boat-crash-134523707.html

 

..Police are recovering the bodies of two men and a woman after their powerboat slammed into a Lake Erie break wallnear Leamington, Ont., late Sunday.

 

Five people were on the boat, and two of them were found clinging to rocks near a marina early Monday. One body was spotted around 11 a.m. Monday morning. The other two missing boaters were found dead later in the day, provincial police said.

 

In addition to the two women found alive, the other people on the boat, all from Leamington, included a 32-year-old woman and two men, aged 31 and 33. The names of the victims were not being released until the families of the deceased were notified.

 

Divers with the OPP's Underwater Search and Recovery Unit arrived at noon to recover the first body and search for the other boaters.

 

As the search continued early Monday, about 20 people gathered near the docks and shoreline. Edward Monteiro said his son, Danny, owned the boat that crashed and was one of the missing victims.

 

"I'm here all night, waiting for my son," said Monteiro, breaking into tears.

 

A family friend said he had been waiting since 1:30 a.m. for news, and it was getting harder to stay positive.

 

OPP received a call around 11 p.m. Sunday that someone was screaming for help from the darkened harbour.

 

"That person overheard somebody calling, 'Help, call help, SOS,'" said Erin Vincent of the Canadian Coast Guard.

 

Susan Ross, who lives on the Leamington marina boardwalk, told CBC News she watched the vessel coming toward the marina "at normal speed" on Sunday night. Then it just disappeared, she said.

 

"I didn't think much more of it," Ross said. "Later I heard yelling and I thought it was just kids horsing around down at the marina, because I couldn't hear what was being said."

 

When the noise continued, Ross called police. She said she originally thought the noise of the crash came from the ferry dock farther away, but it sounded like scraping metal, she said.

 

"I feel really, really sad for whoever this is concerning," Ross said.

 

Two women found alive were rescued after Ontario Provincial Police used two civilian vessels to search the outer breakwall of the marina. Officers found the women with non-life-threatening injuries.

 

"They actually found two people clinging to the rocks of the breakwall," she said.

 

An eight-metre power boat was found in pieces about 500 metres off shore from the marina, said Vincent.

 

A 31-year-old Alberta woman was transported to Leamington hospital and a 36-year-old Leamington woman was taken to Hôtel-Dieu Grace Hospital in nearby Windsor. One of them suffered a broken leg and ankle, while the other had injuries to her face.

 

A U.S. Coast Guard helicopter also responded to the emergency call on Sunday night, and on Monday, a Canadian Forces Griffin helicopter took over the search.

 

It isn't known whether the victims were wearing life jackets. The OPP said alcohol had not been ruled out as a factor in the crash, and there would be a criminal investigation. Post-mortem examinations of the victims will be conducted, it said.

 

The Canadian Coast Guard said the conditions on the lake were calm.

 

Amanda Smith, the town's spokesperson, said the breakwall had navigation lights to guide boaters at night.

 

A 20-year veteran boater at the marina told CBC News that navigation around the breakwall has never been a concern for him, but others said the outer wall was a hazard for boaters and not well-lit at night.

 

Ross said she was aware of a serious accident involving the breakwall before she moved close to the marina five years ago.

 

Staff-Sgt. Mike Beatty of the Essex County OPP said there had been other incidents near the break wall, but they weren't common.

 

By afternoon on Monday, boaters were circulating a petition to get the town to install more lights along the breakwall.

...