What started as a magical night for the upper Bay boating community ended with a scary accident on Saturday, Dec. 6. It was just before 11 p.m. when reports came in for a boat crash with ejection and injuries in the Chesapeake and Delaware (C&D) Canal. It came several hours after a beloved lighted boat parade.
The Maryland Natural Resources Police (NRP) responded to the C&D Canal near Chestnut Springs Road in Chesapeake City, where a 30-foot center-console boat had struck a fixed marker. There they found three people injured on board. The fourth occupant, a 48-year-old woman, was ejected from the boat and police say she was able to swim to shore, where they found her. She was flown to Shock Trauma in Baltimore by helicopter in serious condition. The three other victims who police identified as two men ages 53, 46, and a woman, 52, were taken to Christiana Hospital in Newark, Delaware, to be treated.
Editor’s note: NRP initially identified the occupants as one woman and three men, but since updated those identifications. Our story has been updated to reflect the correction.
There was a large response to the canal by investigators and emergency crews. Volunteer Fire Company #1 of Chesapeake City responded with their fireboat along with Cecilton and Delaware City marine teams. NRP and the U.S. Coast Guard were on scene as well, and a Maryland State Police helicopter transported the badly injured woman.
NRP spokesman Hunter Dortenzo tells us the marker the boat struck was an unlit navigational marker maintained by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers located roughly 100 yards from shore on the south side of the canal.
He says there were life jackets on board the boat as required by law, but the boaters weren’t wearing them. Visibility may also have been an issue. Dortenzo says, “Dense fog is believed to be a contributing factor, however continued investigation into the cause of the accident is underway.”
Dortenzo said officers are investigating how fast the vessel was going at the time of impact. The speed limit in the Maryland section of the C&D Canal, where the crash happened, is 20kts from sunset to sunrise. (From sunrise to sunset, it is 35kts.)
According to NRP, the boaters were returning to an area marina after attending the Fourth Annual Bohemia River Boaters Lighted Boat Parade. The parade had started just before 6 p.m. earlier in the evening, stretching for two miles and raising 2,200 pounds of food for local people in need.
