Teens collide in jet ski crash at Table Rock Lake, killing one, Missouri troopers say

Two teens boating on Table Rock Lake collided in a fatal jet ski crash over Labor Day weekend, officials said.

A 14-year-old girl and a 15-year-old boy were on separate jet skis — 2004 Bombardier Personal Watercrafts — when the 15-year-old’s jet ski struck the 14-year-old’s jet ski, according to a Boat Incident Report from Missouri State Highway Patrol.

The girl was tossed from her jet ski in the collision at about 4 p.m. Saturday. She was pronounced dead about three hours later at Mercy Hospital in Springfield.

Both teens involved in the crash were from St. Louis, though state troopers did not say if the two knew each other. The teens were not identified in the report.

This was Missouri State Highway Patrol Troop D’s seventh fatal boating incident, the report says. Troop D covers southwest Missouri.

Personal watercrafts were involved in 19 drownings and 47 other deaths in 2020, according to the U.S. Coast Guard’s 2020 Recreational Boating Statistics report. They were also involved in 896 injuries.

Colliding with a recreational vehicle was the most reported accidental boating incident, the report states. In 2020, there were 1,379 accidents, 66 deaths and 831 injuries.

The 2020 Missouri Boating Statistics & Drownings report released by Missouri State Highway Patrol, looking back at the year 2019, states there were two fatal incidents and 16 reported injuries connected to a personal watercraft.

This story was originally published September 7, 2021 at 10:32 AM.