14 DAY TRIAL // One person has been declared dead, three others are injured and two women are missing after a motorboat and a houseboat collided on Lake Powell.
The accident involved a motorboat crashing into a houseboat at 8:15 a.m. on Thursday off the Dangling Rope Marina, Kane County Sheriff's Sgt. Alan Alldredge informs.
Police are yet to find out the cause of the crash and officials suspect that the driver of the motorboat was distracted when he hit the houseboat, with thirteen people aboard.
According to Fox 13 Now, 57-year-old Marilyn Jackman of South Jordan lost her life in the accident.
“It was Marilyn’s favorite place to be in the world. She talked about it all the time. [...] It was her heaven on earth, so it’s kind of ironic that’s where the angels came to take her home,” neighbors and friends of 20 years Rick and Kari Wahlquist note.
“You always would see Adrian going down the street with the wheelbarrow and the tiller going to till someone’s garden, and Marilyn was always doing something for someone,” Kari Wahlquist recalls.
The two women who are missing are her daughter, 22-year-old Jessica Jackman, and her son's girlfriend, 29-year-old Valerie Bradshaw.
“I couldn’t believe it. I was in shock. [...] It’s a very wonderful family,” neighbor Colleen West says.
Seven adults and six children were on the motorboat when it smashed into the houseboat. KSL mentions that none of the passengers on the houseboat have been wounded.
However three people on the motorboat, including the driver and an 11-year-old girl were transported to a hospital in Page, Arizona with minor injuries.
“This time of year, the lake can get busy and these kinds of accidents, even though they’re not rare, they do have a great potential for happening out there,” Sgt. Alldredge warns.