Witnesses of tour boat accident on Lake George recall tragedy

Published: 2005-10-06

ALBANY, N.Y. (CNS) -- "We started to see bodies. You wanted to see that they were alive. You wanted to get them up. And you saw they were not alive," Mary Olsen told The Evangelist, newspaper of the Albany Diocese. That is the image she saw on Lake George Oct. 2, after the tour boat Ethan Allen had capsized, claiming the lives of 20 elderly tourists from Michigan and Ohio. Initially, officials put the death toll at 21. Mary Olsen, coordinator of disaster relief for Catholic Charities in the Albany Diocese, and her husband, Noel, who is director of the diocesan Office of Real Property, were boating on Lake George with friends when they came across the tragic scene. They were among the first to respond to the wreck. An Oct. 5 Associated Press story reported that the National Transportation Safety Board ran a stability test on a boat identical to the Ethan Allen and determined the capsized craft could not handle the passenger load. The board planned to continue its investigation. After the accident, the captain of the boat was quoted as saying his craft flipped over after he tried to steer out of a wake, or wave, caused by another boat.

Copyright (c) 2005 Catholic News Service /U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The CNS news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed, including but not limited to such means as framing or any other digital copying or distribution method, in whole or in part without the prior written authority of Catholic News Service .