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N.Y. boat accidents
3 dead, 4 seriously injured in N.Y. boat accident Updated 10/5/2009 1:58 AM ET E-mail | Save | Print
NEW YORK (AP) — Three people were killed and four others seriously injured when their 40-foot powerboat plowed onto marshland on a moonlit Sunday night off Long Island's southern shore, authorities said.
The Hustler powerboat was navigating a channel in an area dotted with boggy salt marshes, just south of the hamlet of Wantagh, under a bridge for a parkway that leads to Jones Beach when it ran aground, authorities said. The boat's captain was thrown off the craft, and pronounced dead by rescuers when they arrived.
Capt. Joe Frohnhoefer, the founder of SeaTow, a marine assistance organization with headquarters in Southold, said one of its boats was the first to arrive at the crash. He said the lone crewmember found four people injured and one dead.
Nassau County Police Department said they responded about 7 p.m. to the accident, along with the U.S. Coast Guard, Wantagh Fire Department and the New York City Police Department. At least two people were airlifted to nearby hospitals, according to the Coast Guard. The survivors remained hospitalized early Monday.
Nassau County police were investigating the cause of the accident.
Frohnhoefer said he wasn't surprised by the crash, adding that he has seen four similar accidents, where boats run up usually on sandbars while trying to navigate the complex network of channels and bays.
"It's a lack of knowledge, a lack of boating knowledge," he said.
Frohnhoefer said it was too early to speculate on a cause of the crash.
http://content.usatoday.com/dist/cus...36441220.story
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Read about that, sad to hear.
