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| Slow response to boating accident angers witness |
By: John Brannon Messenger Staff Reporter
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Posted: Tuesday, July 7, 2009 10:41 pm
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By JOHN BRANNON
Messenger Staff Reporter
Linda Jones of Union City expressed outrage about a perceived slow response by emergency agencies to a fatal boating accident on Kentucky Lake Thursday afternoon.
“We desperately needed help. People were still in the water,” she said.
A bass boat that Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency investigators estimate was traveling at least 40 miles per hour slammed into a pontoon boat about 5:50 p.m. Thursday.
Fatality
Killed in the accident was former Martin resident San-dra Renae Adams, 47, of Mur-freesboro. Mrs. Adams’ daughter, Megan, 16, was seriously injured and ultimately airlifted to Vanderbilt Hospital in Nashville for treatment. Her status at press time is undetermined.
On the pontoon boat were seven members of the Adams family — Megan and Mrs. Adams; her husband, Jeffery; their son and daughter-in-law, names not available; and two boys, ages 11 and 9, names not available.
Mrs. Adams and Megan were sitting on the front of the pontoon boat when the bass boat hit, knocking them into the water, along with one of the boys.
The driver of the bass boat was identified by TWRA agents as David Phelps, 37, of Woodlawn, age and occupation unknown. He was alone in the boat.
“What bothered me is, a girl on the other boat called 911 as soon as it happened,” Mrs. Jones said. “When she got off the phone to 911 (located at Paris Police Department), she checked the time. She had been calling them 47 minutes and 58 seconds, and we still had nobody out there. They (911) kept telling us, ‘Bring her to Paris Landing.’”
The situation was that Mrs. Adams and her daughter were still in the water, Mrs. Adams unresponsive and the daughter screaming.
“We tried to explain to them (911) that we were pulling people out of the water, and ‘You need to send someone out here,’” Mrs. Jones said. “Finally, they were all out of the water except the girl, and they didn’t want to pull her up. They were afraid they’d injure her more than she was. So we started up our pontoon and headed toward Paris Landing. About halfway there we met a boat, people were waving to us, asking, ‘Are you the boat with the injured person?’ We told them yes, and they pulled alongside. The (Henry County) rescue squad had asked a private party to take them out there in their pontoon. Some of us got into their boat, and they started working on the lady (Mrs. Adams).
“So we finally got to the landing. Know what we saw? A Coast Guard boat docked at the marina, just sitting there. They asked us what happened out there. We asked them why they didn’t come help. They said they don’t answer distress calls on Kentucky Lake, it has to be on the Tennessee River. It (the accident scene) may have been in the river as far as I know. That’s how close we were to it. The Coast Guard wouldn’t even come out and see. They had to know where we were. We told them on the 911 call, ‘a half mile south of the bridge.’
“So yes, I was very upset. I am still very upset.”
Under investigation
The accident is under investigation by two TWRA officers — Clay Riley, TWRA officer for Henry County, and Brad Jackson, TWRA officer for Benton County. Both boats involved have been seized and impounded as crime scene evidence.
No TWRA officers were on duty on the lake Thursday afternoon. There had been earlier, but they had taken off because they knew they would work the imminent July Fourth holiday weekend.
Riley said he was at his home, about a 10-minute drive from the lake. He said that he received a call, responded immediately, and was at the scene of the accident within 20 minutes.
Jackson said he was on duty at another location but responded as soon as he was notified.
Riley interviewed the driver of the bass boat; Jackson concentrated on the pontoon boat. Jackson is also serving as accident reconstruction officer.
Phelps, operator of the bass boat, was still at the scene when TWRA officers arrived. His bass boat had been disabled by the crash. Riley said Phelps was given a field sobriety test and a sample of his blood was taken for TBI laboratory analysis. He was arrested by Riley, charged with boating under the influence and transported to the Henry County Jail. He has since been released after posting a $1,500 bond. He is scheduled to appear in Henry County General Sessions Court at 9 a.m. July 16. Jackson said the case is still under investigation and other charges may be filed against Phelps.
In retrospect, Mrs. Jones said she and others in their party — there were two pontoon boats — were just pleasure riding, enjoying themselves. “We were not going at a fast speed, sort of medium,” she said. “We passed a pontoon boat and, a few seconds later, this bass boat came flying past us. I commented to someone, ‘You couldn’t hog-tie me and put me on a boat going that fast on this lake!’
“About that time, we heard a loud WHAM! We spun around, saw (the bass boat) split the water. It dawned on me that he never saw the pontoon that we had just passed. He never slowed down, he never saw them, he went right across the front of the boat where the woman and her daughter were sitting.
“Our boat was the first one to get there. A boy was hollering, ‘Get the boat over here, get the boat over here! Throw me life preservers!’ We threw out five of our six life preservers.
“There was a girl in the water, she was screaming. They were trying to hold her next to the pontoon. She was screaming, hurting so bad. They didn’t dare try to lift her.
“It took four people to finally get the woman out of the water and onto our boat. I thought when we got her out that she was dead. Her eyes looked like they were fixed. But we still, myself and a man riding with us, gave her CPR. But we never got any response, nothing.
“If our two boats hadn’t been there, that boy would have drowned because he would never have left his mother. That girl would have drowned, too, because she couldn’t hold herself up. We pulled a little boy out of the water. He was about 10 or 11. He probably would have drowned. And I know the father wouldn’t have stayed on that boat and let his wife and son go down.
“We couldn’t help that lady, but I do think we saved some lives.
“A funny thing, too. No other boats stopped until about 20 minutes later. People on other boats would wave to us, and we were hollering and screaming for help. Some guy finally realized we weren’t waving just to be friendly, and he stopped. It was the only other boat that stopped.”
An irony
Jackson and Riley agree that it is ironic that the Kentucky Lake accident happened on the heels of TWRA’s statewide campaign to warn the boating public that boating and alcohol don’t mix. The campaign, Operation Dry Water, began at least a week before the July Fourth holiday weekend.
“These events occur,” Jackson said. “We are fortunate they don’t occur more often. I would like to think our outreach and enforcement efforts are making a difference. It’s like folks on the road. You can’t keep your thumb over all of them.”
Published in The Messenger 7.7.09 |
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