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Mom pleads for boaters to come forward in son’s accident

A mother is reaching out to the public to help identify the couple who got in a boating collision with her 15-year-old son early last month on Bartlett Lake.

The accident occurred on Aug. 5 when the teen, who was operating a jet ski on the lake, collided with a speedboat. The couple aboard the boat left the scene of the accident, leaving her son to the mercy of Good Samaritans who tended to his very serious injuries.

The boy is still a patient at Maricopa Medical Center. He suffered extensive trauma to his head and face, and has already had several reconstructive surgeries, as well as other surgical procedures.

Doctors placed him “in a medically-induced coma,” where he remained for 19 days. He suffered injuries to his skull, brain, eyes and nose and no longer has the sense of smell.

Authorities reported the other boat’s occupants fled the accident scene and never identified themselves as being involved in the teen’s accident.

His mother is living “every parent’s nightmare” as she watches her son suffer. She remarked that it was hard to believe [the boaters] “would just leave a child laying there.”

The Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office released descriptions of the boat and its occupants. The boat is described as designed for fishing, perhaps with an aluminum hull that has its bottom half colored light gray. A stripe above it was allegedly purple or dark charcoal in color. It had a black outboard motor and black lettering on one side.

The man was a 30-ish Caucasian, stocky build, weighing about 190 lbs. and 5’7″. He wore his brownish-blonde hair in a buzz cut and had a goatee that was trimmed. His female companion was approximately 25 to 29 years old, Caucasian, with dark hair worn long and a medium build. She had no visible tattoos.

While this couple could potentially face criminal charges for leaving an accident scene where someone was injured, it is not necessary for the police to charge someone with a crime in order for an injured party to pursue civil justice against them.

Source: KNXV-TV, “Woman hopes to find couple involved in boat crash with seriously injured son,” Mike Pelton, Aug. 28, 2017

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