At approximately 7:00 pm, on May 30, 2010,  Operator was headed south/southwest in her red Celebrity boat at ¾ throttle position toward Mehaffey Bridge on the Coralville Reservoir. She was pulling a tube carrying victim. Operator made a hard left turn (east/northeast) sending the tube to the outside of the wake behind her vessel. As the Celebrity was making the turn, Victim fell off the tube approximately 100 yards north of the slow-no-wake buoys on the north side of Mehaffey Bridge. 

Operator2 was headed north/northwest in his white Crownline through the no-wake zone towards the eastern side of Mehaffey Bridge. At approximately the same moment that Victim fell off the tube north of the no-wake zone, Operator2 exited the no-wake zone and increased his vessel’s speed causing the bow of the vessel to raise up, thereby blocking his view of Victim in the water. Just as the bow of Operator2’s vessel was returning to level as his boat came onto plane, subject1 riding in the bow of Operator2’s boat, saw Victim in the water directly in front of the Crownline. Subject1 shouted to get the attention of Operator2. At that moment, the Crownline was starting to pass over the top of Victim. Operator2 saw a glimpse of Victim’ life vest and then felt his vessel strike something. Upon feeling the strike, Operator2 reacted by jerking the steering wheel of his vessel to the left and cutting the throttle bringing his boat to a stop north/northwest of victim’s original location in the water. Operator2’s vessel went directly over the top of Victim causing the prop to come into contact with her. Victim was decapitated by the propeller of the Crownline resulting in her death.

Operator1 had not consumed any alcohol prior to the incident.

At the scene, Operator2 refused all field sobriety tests, but had admitted to consuming alcohol. Operator2 was taken into custody and a search warrant was obtained to draw a blood sample. The sample was taken at Mercy Hospital in Iowa City. The blood was drawn approximately 3. 5 hours after the incident. The blood sample was sent to the Division of Criminal Investigation to be analyzed. The blood analysis showed a blood alcohol content of .057. The Division of Criminal Investigation extrapolated Operator2's blood to be under the legal limit of .1 at the time of the incident. 

No charges were filed in this incident.
North Liberty                 