Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) say a “significant development” is coming into a fatal May long weekend boat crash north of Kingston.
The OPP said the update into the case, which saw three young people killed and five others injured on Bobs Lake on May 18, will come Wednesday morning.
Just after 9:30 p.m. that day, a speedboat ended up on top of a fishing boat in the lake, which is just north of Kingston.
Three people – Riley Orr, Juliette Cote and Kaila Bearman, who were all between the ages of 21 and 23 – were pronounced dead at the scene, police said.
Emergency responders said five other people, ranging in age from 21 to 44, were transported to a hospital in Kingston.
‘People screaming for help’
Recordings of emergency dispatches posted online shortly after the crash revealed a chaotic scene as paramedics, police, and firefighters raced to the area.
“OPP and ambulance are reporting two boats have crashed. They can hear people screaming for help,” a dispatcher from South Frontenac Fire and Rescue said around 9:45 p.m. May 18.
Around 10:10 p.m., first responders found most of the crash victims wedged together on the boats next to a concrete dock near a few cottages. It is unclear at this time if the boat that was hit had lights on.
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Two people were without vital signs, while another was in and out of consciousness, a firefighter told dispatch.
Tony Hammond’s family has been going to the area for over 40 years, with Hammond living along the water for the last 20.
The crash occurred on a narrow channel that connects Bobs Lake and Buck Bay, which Hammond overlooks when he is sitting on the deck of his home.
That’s where he was when he said he saw a group of young people listening to music onboard a boat, which wasn’t far from its dock, when he heard another boat approaching.
Everything was happening so fast, Hammond told Global News in the spring, that he did not have time to react.
“I was just hoping not to hear the crunch, and then I heard the crunch,” he said.
“Before any of the actual first responders (arrived), everyone was doing what they could. There’s no way to describe it, except that anyone who ever hears it knows that sound is go time.”
The OPP update is set for 10:30 a.m. Eastern.
— with files from Sawyer Bogdan
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