Overloaded boat flips 8 people and dog into lake

An overloaded boat capsized Sunday, June 19, in Georgia’s Lake Allatoona, throwing eight people into the water, including terrified children.

Chaotic video recorded at the scene shows some of the boaters did not have life preservers and were forced to cling to cushions and seats to stay afloat. The lake is about 35 miles northwest of Atlanta.

Among the witnesses were Georgia Game Warden Steven Martinez and Cpl. Tyler Lewis, who found men, women and children in the water. A dog survived by sitting atop the capsized boat.

The first to be rescued was a wailing toddler, the video shows.

“They were able to quickly get to the boat and began throwing flotation to the people in the water and began getting them onto their boat,” the Georgia Department of Natural Resources Law Enforcement Division wrote in a Facebook post.

“All eight people on board, including small children and a dog were rescued.”

The department posted the video on Facebook, noting it underscored the importance of life jackets.

Identities of the boaters were not released, and the division did not report any injuries.

The boat appeared to be about the size of a bass boat, 16 to 25 feet long, which have a five-passenger capacity, Discoveryboating. com reports.

It flipped over about 50 yards from the nearest lake bank.

At its deepest, Lake Allatoona is about 145 feet, according to Fishermap.org. The lake covers about 12,000 acres with 270 miles of shoreline largely managed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Allatoonalake.org says.