On Friday 9/11/09 at 1618pm I was notified by phone of a boat accident on lake James.  I was not in Steuben county at the time of the call.  Steuben county dispatch advised that a pontoon boat was running in circles in the 2nd basin of lake James and 2 people were in the water.  I advised that I was almost in Elkhart county on an investigation with Officer 1 and could not respond quickly.  I suggested they contact  the Steuben county marine patrol and see if someone was available to assist as I know they still have a boat on lake James and Snow lake.  About 5 to 10 minutes later Steuben communications called back and advised that the 2 people in the water had been rescued and the boat had hit 2 other boats and was now stopped.  I told them I would respond from Lagrange county as soon as possible and do the investigation.  Steuben communications did send Officer 2 of the Steuben county marine patrol to the scene and he gathered some information on who was involved.  He contacted me and told me the driver of the boat and the boat that caused the accident would be waiting at north west landing on lake James for my arrival.   At approximately 1818pm Ii arrived at north west landing to begin the investigation.  Upon my arrival I observed a blue pontoon boat sitting on a boat trailer with extensive damage.  As I walked over to the boat a man standing beside the boat advised that he was the driver of the boat involved with the accident.  He produced an Indiana drivers license and a business card from Brunswick marine.  His drivers license identified him as Operator 1.   He advised he was test driving the boat as a boat dealer for a customer when the accident occurred.  The customer who was also the passenger on the boat was identified as Passenger 1. Upon talking to the driver of the boat I got the following account of the accident.  He advised that this particular boat involved was a new hull design a model xtr which stood for extreme turning radius.  It has fins welded onto the pontoons so that the boat can turn more quickly and sharply during turns.  This boat was a 2010 harris kayot flote bote model grand mariner 220.  It was powered by a 225hp mercury verado outboard motor.  Operator 1 did advise that this particular boat had never been tested with a 225 hp motor before today.  It had been tested with a 150 and a 200 hp motor.  He advised that he and his intended customer had went out on lake James from north west landing.  Operator 1 was driving the boat and Passenger 1 was on the passenger side of the boat beside the drivers position.  He advised they had went about 300 yards to the south of north west landing and he started making a left hand turn going 28-30 mph (4300-4500 rpm) with the motor trimmed 1/8 up.  He said the boat started turning left and the boat began leaning to the left with the right side lifting out of the water.  The boat then grabbed the water and came down hard on its right side.  This caused the driver and the passenger to be ejected over the starboard side of the boat over the railing into lake James.  The boat began circling to the left and both subjects in the lake were in fear of their life as they kept swimming out of the way of the run a way boat.  After a short time another boat arrived on the scene and lent assistance and finally was able to pull both subjects from the lake.  The boat continued to circle with increasingly larger circles until it hit a pier, a boat and shore station, and another pier at lake James.  After hitting this boat it continued on still circling to the left and went back out into the lake to the south and came back into shore at 520 ln 105 lake James and hit another pier, pontoon boat and shore station.
Angola                        