MONTICELLO — Two teenage girls were injured in a boating accident on Lake Freeman near Monticello on Wednesday.
According to a report from the Indiana Department of Natural Resources, a 911 call reporting the crash came in to the Carroll County Communications Center at 8:13 a.m. Wednesday reporting the crash on Lake Freeman near the Sportsman Inn Restaurant in Monticello.
According to Indiana Conservation Officers, Kathleen Barrett, of Monticello, was operating a 20-foot runabout-style boat upstream from the U.S. 421 bridge pulling a tube with three juveniles on it. Officers said Barrett was making a turn when the sun caused her to misjudge the distance between the docks and the tube and the turning of the boat caused the momentum of the tube caused the tube to collide with the dock.
A 13-year-old girl from Crest Hill, Ill. was on the tube at the time and was injured. The girl was taken first to IU White Memorial Hospital and then flown to Riley Children's Hospital in Indianapolis, convervation officers said. An 11-year-old girl, also of Crest Hill, was also on the tube and received minor injuries. She was taken to IU White Memorial Hospital.
Conservation officers said a juvenile boy on the tube and the occupants of the boat were uninjured.
Everyone involved in the incident was wearing life jackets, according to the DNR.
The Monticello police and fire departments assisted conservation officers at the scene.
