A tragic 4th of July boating incident in Livingston Parish claims the life of 17-year-old Madison Bradley of Slidell. LDWF spokesperson Adam Einck said agents were notified that the female was last seen riding in front of the protective railing of a pontoon boat on Blind River just before 6pm.
“Another boat came by with a big wake and when that boat hit that wake, it knocked her into the water. The boat then ran over her and unfortunately, she received a lot of prop injuries from the vessel,” said Einck.
Her body was found hours later and a male teen who also was knocked off the vessel resurfaced with minor injuries. Einck said the operator of the boat 33-year-old David Crowe of Denham Springs was booked into the Livingston Parish Jail and charged with vehicular homicide, DWI, and reckless operation.
“And the reckless operation charge that stems from the fact that he was operating a vessel, he was impaired, and he was allowing passengers to ride on the front of the vessel in front of the protective rail,” said Einck.
Wildlife agents remind you to never ride in front of the protective railing on a boat. Einck said this incident is another tragic reminder of what can go wrong.
“You get knocked off that boat for any reason you’re not going to have enough time to react and the boat’s going to drive over on top of you and then you have the potential to hit the prop, which could be a fatal accident and in this case that’s exactly what happened,” said Einck.
Einck said there have been 20 boating fatalities in Louisiana so far this year.
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