LAKE GEORGE, N.Y. – A glass-enclosed boat carrying tourists on a senior citizens’ cruise overturned Sunday on a calm lake in upstate New York, killing at least 21 people and sending more than two dozen cold and wet passengers to a hospital.
Authorities were investigating whether a large passing tour boat created a wake that caused the accident, Warren County Sheriff Larry Cleveland said.
The boat was carrying a tour group from the Trenton, Mich., area. The boat had a maximum capacity of 50 people; it was carrying 48 or 49, officials said.
The 40-foot Ethan Allen capsized about 3 p.m. on Lake George about 50 miles north of Albany in the Adirondack Mountains.
The accident apparently happened so fast that none of the passengers was able to put on a life jacket, Cleveland said. Adult boat passengers are not required to wear a life jacket in New York.
The water temperature was 68 degrees.
Patrol boats that reached the scene within minutes found other boaters already pulling people from the water. All passengers had been accounted for within two hours.
Twenty-seven people were taken to a hospital in nearby Glens Falls. Five people were to be admitted, hospital spokesman Jason White said.
Dorothy Warren, a resident who said she brought blankets and chairs to shore for survivors, said one passenger told her “she saw a big boat coming close and she said, ‘Whoop-dee-doo. I love a rocking boat.’”
Warren said the woman did not know how she got out of the water but said her mother was killed.
Many of the bodies were laid out along the shore, and the site was blocked off by police with tarps. A hearse, police vehicles and several sport utility vehicles later began taking the dead from the scene.
Cleveland said the captain, who was well-known and well-liked by law enforcement officials, survived. He was the only crew member aboard.
Associated Press
Rescuer Brian Hart (left) is thanked by one of the women he saved after a tour boat capsized on Lake George, N.Y., on Sunday, killing at least 21 people.
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