On 7/5/23 at 1645 hrs. Vessel 1 returned to its' home to find that a Jetski was parked in front of the beach area where the operator was in the water and his 9-year-old son was sitting on it.The operator of Vessel 1 did not care for this and drove in front of the Jetski and engaged in a verbal altercation with the Jetski operator ordering him to leave. Vessel 2 was with the Jetski but further out in the lake. The people on Vessel 2 became involved with this verbal altercation with the operator of Vessel 1. Vessel 1 was then slowly driven into the Jetski where it was bumped by one of the pontoons. This action enraged everybody on Vessel 2. 
Vessel 1 then allowed the Jetski to get past him where he then drove out to meet Vessel 2 and continue the verbal altercation. This went on for a few minutes until the operator of Vessel 2 had had enough and attempted to leave. He knew that he was having a problem with the power steering on Vessel 2 but he disregarded that and hammered the throttle to get away from Vessel 1. Due to the water being shallow, the Vessel 2 operator had trimmed up the outdrive and also did not realize that his steering was turned all the way over to the port side. Upon acceleration, the bow of Vessel 2 went high up into the air, slammed into the port side of Vessel 1 and continued to rake down the side. This collision caused extensive damage to the main frame of Vessel 1 and was later deemed to be a total loss. The passenger on Vessel 1 was sitting in the passenger seat on the port side and the bow of Vessel 2 struck him in the shoulder resulting in him having to go to the hospital for treatment.
An inspection of Vessel 2 showed insignificant damage to its' bow as a result of this collision. The power steering issue was found to be that the main drive belt on the engine had broken which drives the power steering pump. 
This crashreport and all statements were submitted to the District Attorney's Office and the operator of Vessel 1 was charged with Assault (for intentionally hitting the Jetski) and Operating to Endanger. The operator of Vessel 2 was charged with Reckless Conduct with a Dangerous Weapon (due to the fact that the operator knew he had a steering problem) and Aggravated Criminal Mischief.

LONG L
Harrison                      