7/18/2008

Officers with the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency (TWRA) and Chattanooga Police are trying to figure out why two jet skis collided on the Tennessee River tonight.  The incident occurred shortly after 9:00 p.m. near the Olgiati Bridge.  Upon learning of the incident, Chattanooga firefighters responded from Station One on Main Street, and the fire-rescue boat was also dispatched. 

The boat, however, had to put in at the Tennessee Riverpark and would be delayed.  So two firefighters, Captain Don Bowman and Senior Firefighter Rufus Hicks hitched a ride on a boat owned by Sherwin Smith.  When they got to the wrecked jet skis, they found two men and one woman in the water, hanging onto their jet skis.  All were wearing personal floatation devices.  The woman was injured and one of the men was trying to hold her steady until the firefighters arrived.

The firefighters placed the woman on a body board and secured her head with a neck brace.  They then lifted her up onto to the boat and rushed her back to the dock at the Riverfront Landing.  Paramedics with Hamilton County EMS then transported the woman to Erlanger Medical Center.  Captain Bowman said the woman appeared to be suffering from impact injuries to one leg and her ribs.  Her identity was not available at the time of this release, but she was believed to be around 20 years old.

While the woman's condition was being assessed at Erlanger, officers with TWRA and Chattanooga Police were questioning the two men in an effort to determine how the accident occurred.

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