RedactedNarrative: On july 08, 2019 at appx 5:45 pm, north carolina wildlife resources commission dispatched officer to a vessel that was involved in a boat incident and was heading to trails end boat ramp for emergency assistance.  Officer was on scene at 6:55 pm and was met by new hanover county sheriffs and emt who were already on scene.  
  
  Officer spoke to the vessel 1 operator1, who was standing on the north dock to which vessel 1 was tied up.  Operator1 stated that he was attempting to pull another vessel off a sand bar when the rope broke and it hit his friend.  He then took off and called 911 while he was on his way back to the boat ramp.
  
  Upon investigation, the following events took place.  Operator1 and passenger were traveling south on the icw on vessel 1 when they saw vessel 2.  
  
  Vessel 2 was aground on a sand bar with a passenger.  As he saw vessel 1 traveling south on the icw, operator2 waved for help and operator1 drove over to assist him.  Operator2 took his anchor line off his anchor and attached it to the bow eye of vessel 2.  He then waded out into the water and threw the rest of the line to operator1, who then wrapped it around the port (left) stern (rear) cleat of vessel 1.  There was 39' of line from the bow eye of vessel 2 to the stern cleat of vessel 1 with the remaining line on the floor of vessel 1.  According to operator2, he purchased the anchor line around the 4th of july 2019 at island hardware in carolina beach.  Upon investigation, the anchor line with spring hook was made by invincible marine part number 3089-0213 and was a 3/8” x 50' with a “safe working load of 540 lbs”.  The anchor line comes pre-attached with carabiner clip attached to the line.
  
  Operator1 and his passenger were standing to the left of the center console.  Vessel 1 slowly got the line tight and started to tow vessel 2 off the sand bar.  While pulling on vessel 2, the line attached to the carabiner clip had a large amount of pressure on it and the carabiner clip straightened out.  With the high amount of pressure on the line, it caused the line to act like a rubber band.  When the carabiner straightened out, it flew back in a straight line towards v1 occupant striking him in the left tricep and puncturing into the left side of his ribs and chest cavity. 
  
  After the clip broke, operator1 heard v1 occupant state, “oh shit” and then fall to the floor of vessel 1.  Operator1 saw some blood on the floor of the vessel and told operator2 “you're on your own, i got to go”.  Vessel 1 started back as fast as he could towards the trails end boat ramp.  Operator1 called 911 and told them that v1 occupant was in bad shape and he needed emts to be there when he arrived.  Operator1 stated that he tried to give chest compressions to v1 occupant, but was unable to do a lot of them and drive the boat at the same time.  Emts were waiting at the dock as vessel 1 arrived.  Emts tried to perform lifesaving measures, but were unsuccessful.  
  
  New hanover county csi where called to assist in photographing and documenting vessel 1 at the dock.  Officer hall and the us coast guard went to vessel 2 and interviewed operator2 and his passenger.
  The owner of vessel 2 refused to board the uscg vessel to go back to shore when a severe thunderstorm arrived.  Operator2 waited for the tide to come back and to free his vessel. 
  
  
  *******end of report*********
  