Two people were injured on Sunday when a small powerboat traveling in Turners Creek struck the wooden fenders beneath the U.S. 80 bridge.
Several Chatham Fire and EMS units responded to the scene. Both occupants were transported to Memorial Health Medical Center. According to a Georgia Department of Natural Resources spokesman, one of the passengers was male and the other female.
This is the second crash in as many weekends and the third in a month. On May 28, five people died in a boat collision on the Wilmington River. On May 5, local businessman Joe Moore was killed when a boat he was aboard struck an unlit channel marker near the Savannah Yacht Club and he was hit in the head by an unknown object.
Credit: Adam Van Brimmer/Savannah Morning News
Credit: Adam Van Brimmer/Savannah Morning News
Credit: Adam Van Brimmer
Credit: Adam Van Brimmer
Chuck Kearns, chief executive officer of Chatham Emergency Services, was notified of the crash at 5:49 p.m., soon after the accident. A 15-foot Boston Whaler hit head-on the wooden fenders that protect the bridge pilings. The boat was going fast enough that one person was ejected. The other occupant was injured, but remained on the boat, Kearns added.
Boaters are required by law to slow to idle speed when within 100 yards of the bridges.
Agents with the Georgia Department of Natural Resources initially took the injured boaters to the Savannah Boathouse, Kearns said.
Credit: Adam Van Brimmer
Credit: Adam Van Brimmer
This story will be updated as more information becomes available.
This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: Small motorboat crashes into Turners Creek bridge piling fenders, sending two to hospital
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