On saturday, september 30, 2023, a boating incident occurred at approximately 1700 hours on high rock lake in rowan county resulting in injuries to one person. The vessel involved was an 8' 2021 yamaha gp1800r pwc that was powered by a 180hp gasoline inboard engine. This vessel is owned by the operator at the time of the incident and the only occupant on the vessel. 

Operator was travelling west into the mouth of crane creek at approximately 30mph when something caused him to fall off the port side of the pwc and hit the water very hard. Based on witness statements, it is believed that he was accelerating when he departed the vessel. His son was on a pwc behind him and immediately went to help. When son arrived at the incident scene, operator was face-down in the water and not moving. Son stated that his father was struggling to breathe and had a small amount of blood coming from his mouth. A nearby pontoon boat came to their aid and placed operator on their boat. At this point, he was alert but confused about what had happened. The pontoon boat then took operator to shore and called 911 at 1704 hours. Personnel from miller''s ferry vfd arrived on scene at 1714 hours. 

Master officer with the ncwrc law enforecement division was notified of the boating incident at 1722 hours and arrived on scene at approximately 1744 hours. When officer arrived, operator had already been transported to novant health rowan medical center. Officer spoke to and obtained witness statements from son, who was on another pwc behind operator, and subject who witnessed the incident from his lawn. 

Officer also spoke with remaining emergency personnel on scene who advised that they smelled a very slight odor of alcohol coming from operator, but that he did not seem impaired to them. Officer then called officer with the ncwrc law enforecement division to go to the hospital and speak with operator. Officer2 did speak with operator about alcohol but was unable to perform sfst's due to operator's suspected concussion. Officer2 then left the hospital to go to the magistrate's office and apply for a blood search warrant.  

While officer2 was at the magistrate's office, operator left the hospital on foot and was reported as a missing person.  Personnel with the rowan county rescue squad located operator about 3 hours later, approximately 2 miles away from the hospital.  Rescue squad personnel immediately took him back to the hospital. Officer2 and freeborn spoke to him there and he advised that he was confused and did not know where he was going. He also stated that he had not had anything to drink since the incident. Officer2 served the search warrant for blood and results of that are pending.   After the nurse took his blood for the search warrant, operator refused all medical treatment and left the hospital.

In conclusion, the cause of this incident remains unknown and it is unknown if alcohol played a significant part in the incident.  Operator states that he has no recollection of the incident and therefore is not giving any statements about what happened. a witness later drove operator's pwc back to the operator residence.  He stated that the pwc is very unstable when accelerating and this may have been a contributing factor in this incident.  Charges will not be filed against operator at this time.


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HIGH ROCK LAKE
SALISBURY                     