Three people were injured, two critically, when a boat crashed with a WaveRunner on Lake Marie in Antioch Tuesday evening, authorities said.
Antioch Fire Department Chief Jon Cokefair said units were called to the scene of the crash on Lake Marie at 5:19 p.m. Tuesday for a report of the WaveRunner hitting the boat near the 42000 block of 4th Avenue.
He said dispatchers told fire department personnel that two of the patients were unconscious after the collision.
Cokefair said fire departments launched rescue crafts from the Sandbar in the 40800 block of Douglas Avenue in unincorporated Antioch.
He said two females on the WaveRunner were in critical condition and were transported from the scene of the crash to land, where ambulances were waiting to bring them to Advocate Condell Medical Center in Libertyville.
A third male patient was also transported from the scene by a Spring Grove ambulance to Condell, Cokefair said.
The occupants of the boat were uninjured.
Fire departments from Fox Lake, Lake Villa, Round Lake, Spring Grove and Grayslake assisted the Antioch Fire Department at the scene.
In addition, the Lake County Sheriff’s Office and the Illinois Department of Natural Resources (IDNR) sent watercraft and officers to assist.
Marine deputies and IDNR conservation police officers were seen examining the boat involved in the crash.
The sheriff’s office is investigating the accident, Cokefair said.
Scott Swearingen, who frequents the Sandbar in his camper, called the incident “unbelievable” because there wasn’t as much watercraft activity on the lake on Tuesday compared to Father’s Day.
“On Sunday – Father’s Day – it was crowded as heck and nothing happened,” Swearingen said.
Swearingen said that besides windy conditions, the lake itself on Tuesday was “wide open.”