HARRIS COUNTY, Texas — One person went missing and two people were injured in a boating crash in east Harris County late Sunday, Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said in a Tweet.
The incident occurred when when a boat struck a bulkhead on the San Jacinto River at Rio Villa.
Life Flight took a male victim to the hospital, and an ambulance took a female victim to the hospital.
Deputies believe a third person, a man, was on the boat and went overboard. He has still not been located. The search for him will resume Monday morning.
The sheriff says searching for the man will be tough due to all of the debris that has piled up recently because of rains.
The sheriff tweeted the 18 to 20-foot boat struck the bulkhead at full speed.
“Right now, we have boats en route that will be using side scan sonar to try and find anything that might resemble a person, that we can contact a dive team to try and determine if that might be our missing occupant,” Eric Minter, captain game warden with Texas Parks & Wildlife, said. “Also we’ll be traveling up and down the banks of the river, looking for any indications of possible survivors.”
Texas State Parks is investigating the crash. They say they are still not sure what led to the crash explaining that it may have been a broke throttle cable.
KHOU 11 News spoke with a neighbor who says she rescued a man who was on the boat. She says he leg was severely injured.
The woman says she found the man half in the boat and half in the water. The woman who was injured in the crash was thrown on shore during the crash.
Second boat crash in one week
Jacob Vernon Breaux, 23, of Baytown, was charged with three counts of intoxication manslaughter with a vehicle and two counts of intoxication assault with a vehicle with bonds totaling $200,000.
The sheriff's office identified the victims as: Laura Kay Grant, 48, of Mont Belvieu, and William Robert Bowles, 36, of Baytown who were pronounced dead by Justice of the Peace Precinct 6, Larry Cryer at the scene. Zachary Jackson Miles, 29 of Beach City, succumbed to his injuries and died at Hermann Memorial Hospital after being flown by helicopter from the scene.
That crash involved two boats on Old River Lake near Hugo Point County Park. None of the occupants in either boats were wearing life jackets, the game warden said.
ALSO POPULAR ON KHOU.COM