Search for 2nd victim of deadly boat crash continues
The search for a missing boater continued Friday morning after a deadly collision on Lake Allatoona Thursday afternoon.
It happened just after 1 p.m. where the Etowah River flows into the lake. Officials said the two fishing boats collided with such force, everyone on board was thrown into the water. One man died in the accident, one man was rushed to the hospital and a third man remains unaccounted for.
Rescue crews said a man fishing nearby heard the crash and went to help. Authorities said the fisherman found one man clinging to an overturned boat.
“He was shaken up, he was cold and freezing, he had been in the water for about 45 minutes,” said Tim Cavender, Cherokee County Fire Department.
That man was rushed to the hospital.
Authorities with Cherokee County Fire, Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office, Georgia State Patrol and the Department of Natural Resources all gathered at Little River Marina on Bells Ferry Road after the accident. More than a dozen rescue divers spent hours in the lake where the crash occurred. Within a few hours, divers recovered the body of a man.
VIDEO REPORT: Boats collide on Lake Allatoona
By nightfall the other man was still missing. Crews from the Department of Natural Resources stayed on the water, using sonar to try to find him. By 10 p.m. Thursday, they eventually came off the water. Cherokee County Fire officials said their divers returned to the lake at dawn Friday to continue their search for the missing man.
Authorities have not released the names of those involved.
