ST. CLAIR SHORES, Mich – U.S Coast Guard Station St. Clair Shores rescued six people from two pleasure crafts that collided with each other approximately one nautical mile off Jack’s Marina in Lake St. Clair Sunday at approximately 1:30 a.m.
A Station St. Clair Shores 25-foot small response boat crew arrived on scene and brought four males and two females to awating Emergency Medical Services on shore.
“There was a lot of scattered debris – boats separated by a wide degree. We had to hone-in on their screams for help, because the large debris pieces on the radar were very muddled,” said Boatswain’s Mate 2nd Class John Anderson, Station St. Clair Shores 25-footer coxswain.
EMS transferred three people who required medical attention to St. John’s Hospital in Detroit.
The three sustained various injuries and are in stable condition.
Upon rescuing the six people, Stations St. Clair Shores, Belle Isle and an HH-65C rescue helicopter from Air Station Detroit commenced a search for a seventh male passenger ejected from one of the two boats.
The Coast Guard is working closely with the St. Clair Shores, Police and Fire Departments as wells as the Macomb County Sheriff’s in the vicinity of the marina to locate the missing male safely.
The Coast Guard received a report of five persons on one pleasure craft and two on another pleasure that collided with each other , and one of the passengers was heaving life jackets to the persons in the water.
The law states you must have a life jacket on board, but the Coast Guard recommends you wear your life jacket at all times when boating. It is much more difficult to locate, access or don one at the moment the accident occurs.
The cause of the collision is under investigation.
