A sports boat with a powerful outboard motor apparently rammed another boat on the lake near Ribnitz-Damgarten. One woman died and eight people were injured. There is a suspicion of negligent homicide.
In a sports boat accident on Lake Ribnitz in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, a woman was killed and eight people were injured, some seriously. Helpers from the rescue services, fire brigade and German Life Saving Society treated the injured and took them to hospitals.
As a spokeswoman for the water police said, a sports boat with a 150 hp outboard motor is said to have hit another boat from behind at dusk. The accident happened near Ribnitz-Damgarten. The perpetrator is being investigated on suspicion of negligent homicide and negligent bodily harm. "We have used an expert to clarify the exact accident conditions," said Martin Cloppenburg, spokesman for the authority.
As the spokeswoman emphasized, the exact cause of the accident is still unclear. These are two private boats, each about six meters long. There were three people on one of the two boats and six women and men on the other boat. It has not yet been possible to make an exact assignment because the casualties were taken to hospitals and could not yet be questioned. The 66-year-old woman who was killed was on the boat that was rammed. All those involved should come from Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.
Both badly damaged boats were confiscated for investigation purposes. The Ribnitzer See forms the southern part of the Saaler Bodden, which also has a connection to the Baltic Sea. The criminal police had been turned on, further details are not yet known, it said. The property damage was estimated by the police at around 20,000 euros.
