CLEAR LAKE, Iowa – The Iowa Department of Natural Resources is releasing the names of the juveniles involved in Friday’s crash on Clear Lake involving two personal watercrafts.
Kyle Olberding, 15, of Glidden, was operating the personal watercraft that struck a second personal watercraft with McKenna Holahan, 17, Wynee Bond, 17, and Ellie Shimp, 17, all of Cedar Falls, onboard. Shimp was transported to a hospital in Rochester, Minn.
Olberding’s passenger was Grant Borkowski, 16, of Carroll.
Olberding was charged with Reckless Use of a Watercraft – Iowa Code chapter 462A.12(1) and Operation of a Watercraft by an Underage Person Without Boating Education – Iowa Code chapter 462A.12(6).
DNR conservation officers remind those operating personal watercraft to stay at a safe distance from other personal watercraft and avoid what they commonly see on Iowa waters of one personal watercraft trying to splash nearby personal watercrafts.
Regardless of age, the DNR encourages everyone who will operate or ride as a passenger on a motorboat or personal watercraft to take an online boater education course, which can be found here: http://www.iowadnr.gov/Things-to-Do/Boating/Boater-Education.
IF boats were operated like Jet Skis flying around at top speeds and doing maneuvers that either throw the person off the unit or fly by boats that could cause potential danger to others, you would see the DNR stopping everybody. Yet how often to they stop a Jet Ski for a safety check?? The DNR likes to cruise around Clear Lake where the boats are parked either at State Park Beach or Farmers Beach looking for some small infraction to complete a full Safety Check and potentially generate a ticket but let the Jet Skis operate like they own the Lake.
You are absolutely spot on in your assessment. Water safety enforcement is a joke, particularly with high speed, high risk craft.
Wow, A $100 dollar fine for possibly crippling someone for life. Now somebody will say, he’s such a nice boy, that wouldn’t hurt a fly. That’s possibly what the mother of Mao Zedong, said to.