RedactedNarrative: On monday, july 4, 2022 at approximately 01:00hrs, a boating incident occurred on high rock lake resulting in approximately $6500.00 in property damage to one vessel.  The vessel involved was a ski boat owned by the operator at the time of the incident.  No one was injured in this incident.
  
  The exact location of the incident is unknown.  The following summary is an approximate direction of travel and location of the incident based on statements made by occupants of the vessel and witnesses on land,  operator and passengers were travelling northeast on high rock lake at a speed less than 10mph when the vessel ran aground on a sandbar at the mouth of swearing creek immobilizing the vessel.  
  
  Operator and subject1 climbed out of the vessel and onto the sandbar and were able to push it off into the deeper water of swearing creek.  Operator and subject1 then climbed back onto the vessel and operator began to operate northeast into swearing creek.  He stated that he then began to feel a significant vibration coming from the rear of the boat.  Shortly after feeling the vibration, he realized that the vessel was taking on water and steered his vessel east towards the bank.  As the vessel reached a dock, the boat began to sink very quickly.  An individual on the dock assisted everyone off the vessel and onto the dock as the vessel was sinking.  He dialed 911 at approximately 01:01 hours.  
  
  Master officer with the ncwrc law enforcement division received a call for this boat incident approximately 13:43 hours and arrived on scene at approximately 02:15 hrs.  Officer first spoke with davidson county rescue squad personnel, who advised that there were no injuries and that alcohol was  not a factor.
  
   Officer then spoke with operator and received a brief summary of what happened.  While speaking with operator, officer noticed that his speech was somewhat slurred and was able to detect the odor of an alcoholic beverage coming from his person.  Officer asked operator how much he had had to drink.  Operator stated that he had consumed 4-5 beers.  Officer then conducted the seated battery of sfsts on operator and formed the opinion that he was under the influence of an impairing substance.  Operator submitted to a preliminary beath test on scene.  The results of the pbt were positive with readings of .11 at 02:37 hours and .11 at 02:43 hours.  Officer placed operator under arrest for operating while impaired and transported him to davidson county jail in lexington for intox and processing.  Operator submitted to a brath test on the intoxilyzer and provided readings of .10 at 03:44 hrs and .10 at 03:46 hours.  Using the retrograde extrapolation work sheet, officer estimates that operator's blood alcohol concentration at the time of the incident was 0.145.
  
  The vessel was recovered late in the evening on july 4, 2022 by shoreline management and docks llc.  Sgt of the ncwrc law enforcement division was on scene for the recovery.  Sgt observed numerous empty beer cans and bottles in the boat, including bud light, miller lite and natty daddy.  Stg strickland also found that the starboard exhaust pipe had ruptured inside the vessel.  The exhaust on this vessel exits the stern just below the water line.  This internal rupture created an approximately 2" diameter open pipe from the bilge of the vessel to the water which caused the vessel to flood and ultimately sink.  The port side exhaust pipe was made from fibrous material and wrapped with a protective rubber sleeve.  The starboard exhaust pipe was made from the same material but was missing the protective rubber sleeve which may have caused it to deteriorate over time and finally rupture when the vessel ran aground.
  
  Operator has many years of boating experience and has received boat safety training from the united states army.  The cause of this incident is grounding and a subsequent mechanical failure of the exhaust system, causing the vessel to flood and ultimately sink.  Alcohol did play a factor in this incident and operator was charged with operating under the influence of an impairing substance.
  
  **please note:  this report was manually entered into bard due to transmission issues between report beam and bard.
  
  ***bard, please do not delete this report***
  
  
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