Many hurt in boat collision Memorial Day weekend
A speed boat collided with a pontoon boat on Sunday night of Memorial Day weekend on Lake Holcombe in Wisconsin. Nearly a dozen people were injured, several seriously. The driver of the speed boat was arrested for drunk driving. The crash happened when a runabout-type boat carrying eight people collided head-on with a pontoon boat carrying 11 people, according to Department of Natural Resources Conservation Warden Scott Bowe. The runabout, a 19-ft. fiberglass craft with an inboard engine, rode up on the top of the pontoon, then came down on the left side. The out drive became entangled in a railing on the pontoon. The preliminary results of the investigation into the crash indicate that no one on board the runabout was injured, but perhaps everyone on the pontoon suffered some form of injury. Several of the injuries were quite serious, involving head trauma and broken bones. One person was reportedly pinned under the runabout while another one who was seriously injured was in the water. The operator of the runabout was given a field sobriety test and a preliminary breathalyzer and then taken to a hospital for a blood draw. Derek Lee Brost, 22, was booked into the Chippewa County Jail by the DNR for reckless operation of a motor boat and operating a boat while intoxicated. Bowe said the boats were so entangled that a wrecker had to be brought in to lift the runabout off of the pontoon. He said the fact that the runabout rode up so far onto the pontoon is an indication that the boat must have been moving fast.
