USA: 21 seniors killed as boat capsizes in upstate NY

NEW YORK (China Daily), October 4, 2005: Twenty-one people from a senior citizens' tour group were killed on Sunday when a small tour boat capsized after it hit the wake from a larger boat on Lake George in upstate New York, police said. The 12-metre-long, glass-enclosed Ethan Allen, operated by Shoreline Cruises, was carrying 50 passengers and crew when it capsized on Lake George, a resort area 320 kilometres north of New York City at about 3 pm, Warren County Sheriff Larry Cleveland told a news conference. The passengers were from Michigan on a tour run by a Canadian company of several Northeastern states. The elderly passengers were on the upper deck and not wearing life jackets. Twenty-seven people, ages 55 to 90, were taken to a local hospital, some with cardiac distress, broken ribs and shortness of breath. Seven were admitted, the rest were released on Sunday. More than a dozen survivors clung to the capsized boat for several minutes before it sank in the placid waters on a sunny afternoon. The boat was about 15-30 metres from shore when the accident happened. Several local residents said the tour boat company had a good reputation with no known serious accidents and that nothing of the sort had occurred on the popular lake in memory. Source: China Daily