CALEB NICKERSON
QUYON Aug. 5, 2019
A pontoon boat traveling on the Ottawa River collided with the Quyon Ferry on Monday afternoon, sending a woman in her 60s to the hospital with serious but non life-threatening injuries.
MRC des Collines Police spokesman Martin Fournel said . . .
that the cause of the collision is still under investigation, but there were three people on board the pleasure craft at the time, a man, a woman and their grandchild.
The woman, a 62-year-old from Guelph, Ont., was thrown off her feet by the impact, and was taken to hospital in Ontario with a broken pelvis and a laceration to her head, Fournel reported. She was rescued by the Ottawa Fire Department.
Ferry co-owner Ralph McColgan wasn’t on board at the time, but said that on board saw the man leave the helm of the craft before it collided with the front corner of the ferry.
“Several witnesses saw that the gentleman … he left the helm of his pontoon boat and it veered into the ferry,” he said. “He was back at his motor and the ferry just doesn’t stop on a dime.”
“He just met us at our drawbridge, it would have taken the canopy off his boat… it was nothing to do with our cable, the guy simply wasn’t at his wheel,” McColgan continued.
He said that there was no damage to the ferry, and that this is the first time he’s experienced anything like this.
“That’s not typical, most boaters do stay away,” he said.
