PRAIRIEVILLE TWP, Mich. — A man was seriously hurt after a boat accident on Pine Lake.
According to the Prairieville Fire and Rescue Department, crews went to the lake around 11:30 on Sunday morning.
Two boats collided on the lake, says the Prairieville Fire Chief, and the collision knocked one man off his boat.
The man, who had been steering a sailboat, was seriously hurt and sent to the hospital.
His wife, Cristina Robinson, says she watched the crash happen from the shore.
"Talk about a feeling of helplessness with no motorized boat to get to him," she said. "We don't have our boats in the water yet. "
Robinson says, when she saw her husband get hit and thrown from the Sunfish boat he was piloting on Pine Lake, she didn't have high hopes.
"We all honestly thought it was going to be a body recovery," she remembers.
She says what happened next was a miracle. "Most people don't have their motor boats in the water, but by the grace of God, a family cam by at exact moment I saw him get hit. They took us to him and met Fire and Rescue at the boat launch."
Her husband went to the hospital, she said, with broken bones, some large contusions and severe pain, but he's now heading home.
Robinson says she's looking for the family who helped her husband to safety this Sunday afternoon.
Meanwhile, Prairieville Township officials say they're still investigating the crash and the DNR helped to respond.
"We want to remind our community that we need to exercise as much situational awareness while boating as we do when driving our cars," says the Prairieville Township Chief.
