2 children dead in boat capsizing
OCALA (AP) – A 21-foot boat capsized among storm-driven waves at a popular central Florida lake over the weekend, killing two children aboard and critically injuring a third, authorities said Monday.
The accident happened at about 4:30 p.m. Sunday on Lake George after a violent storm churned up waves 3- to 4-feet high. Two waves crashed over the bow of the boat, officials said, overturning the boat and trapping some its occupants inside the cabin.
Nearby boaters and Coast Guard officials righted the boat, but it was too late for two of the occupants.
Killed in the accident were Dennis Clayton Lennon, 4, of Umatilla and Ciara Puskas, 14, of Eustis. Officer Lenny Salberg, a spokesman for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, said Lennon and two other children aboard the boat who were not hurt had been wearing life jackets, but Puskas was not.
A 5-year-old Umatilla boy was in intensive care Sunday and an adult woman was listed in serious condition. The man who was piloting the vessel was not hurt.
The boat capsized after a fast-moving storm stirred normally still waters at a popular boating spot. Fish and wildlife officials said an air boat also capsized Sunday on Lake George, spilling its eight passengers, but all survived.