Fisherman killed in boat crash while celebrating his 80th birthday, Georgia coroner says
A man out fishing for his 80th birthday was killed in a boat crash on a Georgia lake, officials said.
George Ralph Harper was celebrating on Wednesday afternoon when a boat slammed into his, knocking him unconscious. He was given CPR but later died from his injuries, according to the Baldwin County coroner’s office and the Georgia Department of Natural Resources Law Enforcement Division.
Officials said the crash happened on Lake Sinclair, a reservoir roughly 85 miles southeast of Atlanta. The area is a spot for fishing, boating and other water activities, the Milledgeville-Baldwin County Convention & Visitors Bureau said on its website.
Harper, who was from the nearby city of Eatonton, was in a stationary boat. Then another boat coming out of a cove “began to speed up” but the bow of that boat “was still high enough to obscure the operator’s vision,” according to state officials.
“As a result, the operator didn’t see a fishing boat idling in close proximity,” the Georgia Department of Natural Resources said in a news release. “Once the operator saw the second vessel, he attempted to steer away, but he struck the fishing boat, rendering a passenger in that boat unconscious and not breathing.”
Harper was rushed to a hospital, where he died of blunt-force trauma, chief deputy coroner Ken Garland told McClatchy News in a phone interview.
As of Thursday morning, state officials said a Critical Incident Reconstruction Team would be investigating the incident. No charges were listed in a news release.
This story was originally published October 28, 2021 at 9:40 AM with the headline "Fisherman killed in boat crash while celebrating his 80th birthday, Georgia coroner says."
