Details emerge about Candlewood boat crash
DANBURY — New details have emerged about the Candlewood Lake boat crash that sent two people to the hospital last week.
The two-vessel collision happened near the Lattins Cove State Boat Launch the morning of May 15, when authorities say a 19-foot bass boat with two occupants and 20-foot bowrider with one occupant crashed while heading west toward Danbury Bay.
“Both boats were trying to navigate an area that has a point where you have to go around an island,” said Officer Dakota Flis with the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection’s Environmental Conservation Police.
“They kind of hit side to side, facing the same direction, while rounding the point,” he told Hearst Connecticut Media on Friday.
The passenger in the bass boat was not injured, Flis said, but both boat operators were transported to the hospital.
The operator of the boat had a broken rib and pelvic injury, and the operator of the bowrider had minor scratches, Flis said.
The May 15 crash on Candlewood Lake was still under investigation by EnCon Police’s boat accident reconstruction unit as of Friday.
The area where the crash occurred is not particularly dangerous, Flis said.
“Thousands of boats go through there every year, and there aren’t many accidents that happen,” he said. “This particular day … the two in the area happened to find each other.”
Though most are minor, Flis said boating accidents are “fairly common.”
“It’s not like the road where you have lanes to stay in,” he said. “The water is free, and there are hundreds of different ways you can drive, so it just kind of creates issues at some points.”