Pandemic stalls trials of two charged in 2019 boating death
Two American men have been charged in connection with a 2019 fatal boating collision on Bobs Lake, but their cases remain stalled in the court system because of the COVID-19 pandemic and the closed U.S.-Canada border.
On Thanksgiving weekend 2019, 56-year-old Siyeng Iv was fishing with family members on Bobs Lake, 100 kilometres southwest of Ottawa, when their small aluminum boat was struck broadside by a powerboat. Iv was thrown into the water and suffered fatal head injuries. A native of Cambodia, he had become a Canadian citizen just two days earlier.
A month later, William Nodzik, 70, of Mount Bethel, Penn., was charged with attempting to obstruct justice and public mischief.
In March 2020, Scott Anderson, 56, of Mountain Top, Penn., was charged with criminal negligence causing death, dangerous operation of a vessel causing death, public mischief and attempting to obstruct justice. Anderson's first court appearance was to have been March 19, 2020, three days after the Canada-U.S. border was closed.
Anderson's case is “to be spoken to” again on Thursday at the Frontenac County Courthouse in Kingston, which likely means only that a new date will be set. Nodzik's case is to be spoken to on Jan. 28.
A woman who answered the phone Tuesday at Anderson's construction company in Pennsylvania said she was his wife, but said “No comment,” before hanging up the phone.
Iv was sitting in the bow of a 16foot aluminum runabout with his daughter, Kelly, son-in-law Sean Phav, and Sean's parents, when their boat was hit on the front right side by an 18-foot Sylvan fishing boat powered by a 50-horsepower engine. The impact threw Iv into the water, and, although he was wearing a life-jacket, he suffered a fractured skull and died that night in hospital in Kingston.
Iv had five children, three of whom are still in Cambodia.
The OPP conducted mechanical inspections of both boats and their marine collision team in Sudbury staged a recreation of the collision.