SEATTLE — Two boating collisions happened on Lake Washington in less than 24 hours over the weekend. One collision sank a boat, and police are searching for a boat involved in the second collision that sent five people to the hospital.
Seattle Fire Department said Sunday afternoon a boat and jet ski collided on Lake Washington near Seward Park. Five people swam to shore. No one was injured. The boat involved was three-quarters underwater by around 6 p.m.
Saturday night, a small speed boat with seven people onboard collided with another boat on Lake Washington near the SR 520 Bridge. Five people were taken to the hospital in stable condition.
"All of the sudden this boat just came on top of me. It was like a big shadow," said boater Ted Dominguez.
Dominguez said he was on the boat with six friends. He said his boat was runover and submerged underwater. The boat that hit Dominguez didn't stop.
"I thought they were going to loop around and help us," said Dominguez, "No, they left us."
He claims the boat was significantly larger than his speed boat and wasn't using lights.
Seattle Police are investigating. Sunday, the department's harbor unit stressed the importance of using proper lights.
"Especially, at night it's really important to use, they call them, navigational lights or running lights and it sounds like that was a factor in this," said Seattle Police Harbor Unit Officer Aaron Frausto.
The accident happened around 9:45 p.m., more than an hour after sunset.
Frausto said the collision is an example of why it's important to have easy access to life jackets.
"Things can happen pretty rapidly so you want to be able to get those out in seconds, way less than a minute," said Frausto."Really, has to do with keeping your head above water so you can breath."
Anyone with information about the collision can contact police at the non-emergency line: (206) 625-5011.