An outing on Shuswap Lake to watch the Canada Day fireworks turned deadly Saturday night after a speedboat landed on a houseboat, killing the 53-year-old houseboat operator and injuring at least eight others.
The collision happened at around 11:20 p.m. in Magna Bay, about 30 kilometres north of Salmon Arm.
Boaters had just begun to disperse after the annual fireworks show when a five-metre Campion speedboat carrying three people hit a 12-metre houseboat and vaulted up into the cabin portion, where it came to rest.
Cpl. Dan Moskaluk said the RCMP responded to the “surreal and tragic boating collision” after residents who heard screaming on the lake called police.
Other boaters rushed to help, administering first aid to the injured, the RCMP said.
“We can confirm that there were 13 people on board the privately owned houseboat, and three persons on the speedboat at the time of the collision,” said Moskaluk.
The two vessels were towed into shore by other boaters, where first responders met them, he said.
The operator of the houseboat, a man from Anglemont, was pronounced dead at the scene.
Cathy Renkas, a spokeswoman for Interior Health, said six of the eight people taken to Royal Inland Hospital in Kamloops have been released.
She could not provide information on the condition of the two people admitted.
The B.C. Ambulance Service said it transported nine patients, one of whom was taken to a hospital in Salmon Arm.
Moskaluk said the injuries ranged from minor bruises to fractures and head injuries.
Both boats have been secured and police plan to remove them from the lake for investigation.
Transport Canada and the RCMP West Coast Marine Services are assisting in the investigation.
The Chase RCMP victim assistance personnel were also on scene, “given the traumatic stress that a high casualty incident such as this causes to the direct victims,” said Moskaluk.
Local real-estate agent Al Christopherson, who watched the fireworks from the beach, said it had been a pleasant Canada Day celebration.
Although there were up to 400 boats on the water that night, he said, most of the boaters were families and when the fireworks were over it seemed as though people were leaving in an orderly manner.
“It was a wonderful evening. The sky was clear. There were dozens and dozens of boaters departing, going home. I thought those that were leaving were acting very appropriately; I didn’t see any clowns,” he said.
“The question I have is “˜Which boat was going against the flow of traffic?’”
The RCMP has not released that information because the matter is under investigation.
Christopherson had already gone home when the incident occurred but he went down to the beach Sunday morning.
He said the houseboat was tied to a private dock but he could see the speedboat and the damage.
“It was quite obvious and visible that there was a pleasure craft inside the boat. It was a direct frontal impact. The whole front had been destroyed and caved in and [the speedboat] was completely inside [the houseboat].”
Christopherson said many people, including him, own houseboats in the area.
He said there are no regulations governing how many boats can be on the water at the same time.
“That is something we will have to talk about at some level,” said Denis Delisle, regional director for the North Shuswap.
“But how do you regulate that many boats at night?”
Delisle said he would like to see a greater police presence out on the water at large events such as the Canada Day celebrations to monitor the drinking and speeding.
He estimated that a boat would have had to be going at high speed to cause one to be embedded in the other.
“That accident shouldn’t have happened. You’re in a crowded area and you are going at high speed at night? You can’t do that,” he said.
He noted that the village of Magna Bay only has about 300 residents, but in the summer the area’s population area can swell to 35,000.
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