Just after 6:15 p.m. last night, one person was killed and others were injured when two recreational boats collided in the Upper New York Bay near Liberty Island. According to NBC New York, "Officials said a 30-foot boat, with a family of five on board, 'T-boned' a 20-foot boat with three people in it, splitting it in half." The man who died had been on the smaller boat; the other two men injured were also on the smaller boat.
A relative of one of the smaller boat's passengers said, "They were in a small craft docked, dropped anchor at the Statue of Liberty, and what had happened a larger watercraft, much larger, went through them and hit them." WCBS 2 reports, "A wake from a large speedboat may have caused the larger boat to collide with the victims' vessel." A U.S. Parks Police spokesman told MyFoxNY, "It was apparent that one boat had actually overcome and rode up over another boat, and actually landed on that boat."
The most critically injured passenger had brain and head injuries and rescue crews were seen performing CPR on him; the 30-year-old was pronounced dead at Jersey City Medical Center hospital. The two other passengers had "bumps and bruises" and were able to walk onto a rescue boat on their own. A JCMC doctor told NBC New York, "Obviously there was some significant force that struck the [killed] individual and the other two didn't receive the same type of impact."
The driver of the 30-foot-boat boat, who was with a woman and his three children, was arrested after failing a Breathalyzer test.
Update: The victim who did has been identified as Jijo Puthuvamkunnath of Bergenfield, NJ. Puthuvamkunnath was going to get married next month.
