On July 4th 2023 at approximately 1736 hrs. TWRA Wildlife Officers were notified of a boating incident on Watts Bar lake in Roane County. Roane County 911 advised TWRA that the incident had occurred at a lakeside dock. As the call had come into the 911 call center information was relayed to responding officers that a personal watercraft had struck a woman in the water. 

Once officers arrived on scene they found  that a single personal water craft had two parties on board the vessel when they had fallen off and the vessel had driven away from the operator and had struck a near by woman and the near by dock. 

Witnesses  rushed to the area where the woman was located and turned off the watercraft and began to render aid to her. The injured woman was taken by Lifestar Helicopter to the University of Tennessee Medical Center in Knoxville Tennessee. The operator and the minor child passenger were not injured in the incident. 

The operator stated to officers that while he was driving both him and the younger occupant had fallen off to the left side of the PWC and once they had fallen off that’s when the PWC took off for what he had estimated 20 feet before making contact with the woman on near the dock. 

He did not know why the vessel had just drove away after he had fallen off. Operator was asked if he or the younger occupant had been wearing the required ignition safety kill switch and he had stated that he could remember clipping it to the younger occupant. 

Operator was found to have been newer to boating and not having any experience with this specific vessel prior to the day of the incident. After the collision had occurred, witnesses had stated to officers that they woman had been pinned between the personal watercraft and the dock. All these parties had together moved the vessel off of the victim and began to render aid to her. One of the witnesses stated in a later interview with officers that he believed that he had pulled the kill switch off of the vessel to turn it off while they were rendering aid to the victim. 

Another witness stated to officers in a later interview that after the collision had taken place and he was asked about how loud the engine was after the crash and if the engine speed was high he stated that the noise was low and it sounded like the engine was at an idle speed. This statement suggests that the throttle was not held in the wide open position.

 After being helped form the incident the victim was transported by Lifestar helicopter to the University of Tennessee Medical Center in Knoxville. Once at the hospital officers had interviewed he but all that she could remember is turning her head and seeing a boat coming for her. 

With the operator claiming that he had placed the kill switch on the younger occupant of the vessel and that the vessel was claimed to have driven away on its own accord the vessel was seized for further evaluation by TWRA Officers and taken to a secure facility. The next day officers were able to examine the vessel by firth verifying if the ignition safety kill switch was functional. Officers placed the kill switch in the vessel and began to attempt to start the vessel. The vessel’s engine began to turn over and while the engine was tur

WATTS BAR RESERVOIR
KINGSTON                      