On Friday the 18th day of August 2023 at approximately 8:19 pm, I, Sgt. received information from Officer about a boating accident that had occurred earlier that day.  Officer1 informed me that the Henry County Sheriffs’ Department had called him informing him of the accident.  I made some phone calls to the individuals that had been involved in the accident.  I decided to meet the individuals at 9:30 pm to get statements and assess the damage to the boats involved in the accident.  I met the two boat owners at their storage sheds where they had their boats stored.  I took pictures of the boats and got each operator of the two vessels to write out a statement.  After speaking with them they told me that the accident occurred sometime between 6:00 pm and 6:15 pm.  Neither of the parties contacted the TWRA to report this incident.  Operator2’ father reported this incident to the Henry Co. Sheriffs’ Department.  Both parties were members of the Bethel University fishing team and were out on Kentucky Lake recreational fishing on said date and time.  

After pictures and questioning of the two boat operators the following was determined.  

Operator2 was operating his 19’5” Ranger bass type boat equipped with a 200 Yamaha outboard motor with a passenger and operator1 was operating his 21’ Phoenix bass type boat equipped with a 250 Mercury outboard motor.  

They had been bass fishing in the TN river (Kentucky Lake) between Pace Point and Bennett’s Creek in Henry County, TN.  Operator1 left the fishing area and had slowed down to an idle speed and Operator2 left not far behind and was operating his boat approximately 55 mph and did not see that Operator1 had slowed to an idle speed.  

Neither party seemed to realize what was about to occur. Operator2’ vessel struck the Starboard side and bow of Operator1 Vessel creating a significant amount of damage to both vessels.  

Passenger1 was a passenger on Operator2’ vessel and he stated that he saw that they were getting too close to Operator1 vessel and tried to get Operator2 to slow down, but Operator2 did not slow down.  

The two boats collided and both boats were significantly damaged.  Neither party notified the TWRA that the accident had occurred. They got the boats back to Paris Landing Marina and loaded the vessels up and took them back to their storage sheds.  There were no injuries beyond first aid that were reported to Sgt..  Both Vessels had significant damage. The phoenix boat had a Garmin Force trolling motor and two Garmin gps units were damaged.  The Ranger boat had a humminbird gps unit that was thrown from stand/mount and damaged.  I gathered all information at the time and will be back in contact with all parties as the investigations continues.  

Operator2 was at high rate of speed and was operating too close to another vessel. Operator2 was not keeping a proper look-out and was inattentive to his surroundings while operating on the lake. Operator2 did not take early and substantial action to avoid the collision.
KENTUCKY LAKE
PARIS                         