RedactedNarrative: On 8/17/17 at approx 8:35pm, operator1 was boating up the new river traveling towards the jacksonville boat ramp.  Operator1 stated that he was approaching the no wake zone near the kerr street marina when he hit an unmarked pole that was on the left side of the channel.  
  
  Operator1 stated that he was not in the channel.  He also said that he was running lights on the front of his vessel to see (not navigation lights) and that because of the time of day, it was hard for him to see.  
  
  He also stated that he hit the pole so hard that he would have fallen in the water had he not been holding on to the rail in the center console.  After the impact, operator1 noticed that the vessel was taking on water.  His bilge pump turned on and started pumping water out of the vessel.  Operator1 drove to the jacksonville boat ramp as fast as he could and loaded the boat onto his trailer.  After examining the points of impact on his vessel, he estimated the total damage to be worth $20,000.00.
  
  Operator1 contacted officer at 9:39 am on 8/18/17.  He informed officer1 that he had been involved in a boating incident the previous evening.  Officer1 asked operator1 to see his vessel but he said he was on his way to take his vessel to be seen by the insurance company near raleigh.  Officer1 told operator1 that she needed to see the vessel and he said that he had to take it to the insurance company and he would try to bring it back if he could.  Operator1 offered to bring his boat to officer1's house for her to see the vessel but she was not on duty at the time and told him no.  Operator1 also asked officer1 who's responsibility it was to mark poles in the water.  Operator1 said that pole he struck did not have any sort of markings on it.  Later that day operator1 called officer1 and told her that he couldn't bring the vessel home but he said that he had taken photos of the damage.
  
  Around 4pm that afternoon, officer1 and myself went to operator1's residence and he filled out his mb4.1 and upon interviewing him, his account of the boating incident was not clear.  He said that he hit a pole near the no wake zone but later on he said he wasn't sure what he hit.  Originally he told officer1 that he was running with a spotlight on but after officer1 informed him that the only lights allowed by nc law while a vessel is underway are red and green sidelights and an all around white light in the stern of the vessel.  Operator1 said that he was just turning the light off and on momentarily.  
  
  Operator1 stated that he was participating in a bass tournament every thursday night for the past few weeks, so he was familiar with the new river.  Operator1 stated that he had gone back out that day to see what he hit and he could not find the pole that he hit.  Operator1 stated that it was dusk and it was not completely dark at the time he struck the pylon.
  
  On 8/21/17, officer1 and myself investigated the area where operator1 stated the incident occurred.  After examining all the possible objects in the area that could have been struck, there were only two pylons with recent damage to them.  However, the damage to the pylons did not match the damage on the vessel from the photos that operator1 sent.  The damage on the pylons was on the right side of the pylons and the damage to the vessel was also on the right side.  If operator1 was traveling upstream towards the boat ramp, then he would have hit the left side of the pylon.
  
  Officer1 called operator1 again on 8/21/17 to further investigate.  When officer1 asked where operator1's boat he said he had taken it to swansboro to sanderson boat repair.  Officer1 asked operator1 why he did not tell her that he was taking the boat to swansboro instead of benson and he said he did not think it mattered since he had taken pictures.
  
  Officer1 told operator1 that if she knew that he was taking it to swansboro, she could have gone to see the vessel.  Officer1 told operator1 that we would go look at the vessel.  Officer1 told operator1 that she thought he was leaving something out of his story because it did not make sense.  Officer1 told operator1 what pylon she thought he had hit and he said that he may have hit it but he could not remember.
  
  On 8/22/17 officer1 called operator1 and asked him if he would be willing to sign a written consent form that would allow us to download the gps information off the lowrance hds12 unit on his vessel.  He complied and we met with him at 1pm that same day at the jacksonville boat ramp so he could sign the consent form.  We also met with wildlife officer2 who was going to assist with downloading the gps information.  After operator1 signed the form, we followed operator1 to sanderson boat works in cedar point to see the boat.  When we arrived, officer2 worked on downloading the gps information while we took note of the vessel's damage.  The starboard side of the gunwale was cracked from the bow all the way down to the stern in six general areas.  The boat hull was scraped on the starboard side from the driver console all the way down to the stern.  The trimline was also coming off in various places of the starboard side of the vessel.
  
  After looking at the gps data from the vessel, we determined that operator1 hit the 57 day marked in the new river because the cps coordinates of the marker are the same as the gps coordinates that his navigation system produced.  The gps system showed a dramatic decrease in speed and direction at this point on the map.  Operator1 was traveling 45.9 mph then his vessel made an abrupt 31.1 degree turn and slowed down to 6.6 mph.  This evidence leads us to believe that this is where the incident occurred.
  
  After looking at the boat damage, analyzing the gps data and speaking with operator1, we concluded that he was boating upriver to the jacksonville boat ramp at dusk and at an excessive rate of speed and hit the 57 day marker.  We determined that speed, low light visibility and operator inattention were contributing factors to this boating incident.
  
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