2 Texas boy scouts dead, another injured after sailboat hits power line

Two Texas Boy Scouts, aged 16 and 18, were killed and another was hospitalized after their sailboat collided with an overhead power line, likely sending a jolt of electricity through the boat, Texas officials said on Sunday.

The 11-year-old who survived the Saturday incident during a scout outing on Lake O’ The Pines in East Texas was taken to a hospital in Shreveport, Louisiana, Texas Parks and Wildlife said in a statement.

“Preliminary investigations and observations indicates the vessel, a Catamaran sailboat, collided with an overhead transmission power line and those onboard may have been electrocuted as a result,” the statement said.

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Game wardens found the boat on fire about 300 yards from power lines. Two boys were found dead on the scene with severe injuries, the statement said.

The survivor was picked up from the lake by passengers in a boat nearby, who provided CPR. He was airlifted from the scene, it said.

The three, who have not been formally identified, were all wearing personal floatation devices, it said.

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“This is an extremely difficult time for our Scouting family,” the Boy Scouts of America’s East Texas Area Council Chief Executive Dewayne Stephens said in a statement on Saturday.

“Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims’ families. We will support them in any way that we can,” he said.