A teenager is missing and several people have been seriously injured after a boat accident on Lake Austin in Texas, in what the authorities have declared a mass casualty incident.
Seven people were involved in the crash, including the missing teenager. Two people were taken to hospital with possibly serious injuries and another two refused medical transport, KXAN reported.
Several ambulances, police patrols, and fire department units responded to the scene in northwest Austin on Sunday night. One of those taken to hospital was airlifted to receive care, according to ABC News.
The assistant chief of the CE-Bar Fire Department, Ken Campbell, told the press that the crash took place after the boat crossed over the wake created by another vessel, prompting the operator to lose control. They were going downstream when hitting the wake, with one person being ejected after they lost control of the boat before it struck the right bank.
Mr Campbell was unable to say if life jackets were used, adding that Lake Austin is narrow and becomes crowded quickly with cross currents and cross wakes.
“If you’re just ploughing down the lake as fast as you can go, you’re going to have an accident — even if you’re going slow you can have an accident because there’s a lot of traffic and a lot of things to avoid,” he told the media, according to KXAN.
Two people who weren’t taken to hospital were described as having suffered “potentially serious injuries”.
The authorities declared the incident a Level-5 mass casualty incident. It happened in a remote area of the lake, and jet skis were needed to recover the injured.
Austin-Travis County Emergency Medical Services said emergency personnel are now in “recovery mode,” according to ABC.
