All 8 passengers thrown from boat after it crashes into house at Lake of the Ozarks
All eight passengers were thrown from a boat and several were seriously injured after the vessel crashed into a house in a suspected drunken boating accident at Lake of the Ozarks in Missouri Saturday night.
The boat, a 2014 Nor-Tech, ran aground at around midnight and overturned after hitting the home, authorities said.
The crash left six of the passengers with serious injuries, according to an incident report by the Missouri State Highway Patrol. One person was reported in critical condition Sunday by the Lake Ozark Fire Protection District, whose crews responded to the accident.
Five of the eight passengers have since been released from the hospital, the MSHP told TODAY.com on Monday. Two are still in critical condition and one is in "moderate to serious" condition, highway patrol Cpl. Kyle Green said.
The Lake of the Ozarks is a reservoir located in the northern part of the Ozark Mountains in central Missouri.
LOFPD Chief Marcus Carr told TODAY.com the home's two owners were "sound asleep" inside at the time of the crash. Neither was injured.
"They were actually awakened by the loud noise, stepped outside, and found the boat overturned in their backyard, with patients literally scattered about their backyard," Carr said.
The homeowners and some of the passengers who were able to use their phones called 911 after the accident, Carr said.
The boat's driver, Adam Ramirez, of Huntington Beach, California, was arrested and charged with boating while intoxicated causing physical injury and boating while intoxicated causing serious physical injury, according to police.
Photos from the scene posted on social media by the MSHP showed debris from the overturned boat and the house scattered across the lawn. Police said the house sustained "extensive damage." State troopers were working on Sunday to reconstruct the crash scene with a drone.
All of the passengers, four men and four women ranging in age from 21 to 51, live in other states. None of them were wearing safety devices such as life jackets, according to the incident report. The LOFPD did not have any updates on their conditions as of Monday morning.
"If you're on the water, please make sure that everybody has a life jacket on," Carr said. "While this was a tragic event, it could have been much, much, much worse, and even to the standpoint that we could have had folks that were thrown in the water, and nobody was wearing a life jacket.
"So we will always be big proponents of if you're on the water, wear a life jacket, and always use a sober driver," Carr said.
This article was originally published on TODAY.com
