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Newtown, CT, USA
Newtown, CT, USA
Newtown, CT, USA
Newtown, CT, USA
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Lake Zoar Boating Accident Kills Local Man

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UPDATE (Wednesday, July 12, 2017; 10:39 am): This story has been updated to include the name of the victim of Tuesday night's accident., along with details from Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection. It has also been updated to include comments from a nearby resident who was on the scene. 

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Two people were transported to the hospital Tuesday night, after a pontoon boat they were in on Lake Zoar was reportedly hit by a ski boat. One of the patients later died of his injuries.

CT Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) Environmental Conservation (EnCon) Police said Wednesday, July 12, that Randy Pineau, 52, of Sandy Hook, was pronounced dead at Danbury Hospital on July 11 after the vessel he was operating on Lake Zoar was struck by another vessel around 9:30 pm.

Newtown police, NUSAR, Newtown Volunteer Ambulance Corps and an on-call paramedic, and Sandy Hook Volunteer Fire & Rescue Company were all dispatched to Algonquin Trail, after a caller reported an accident involving a boat and a dock in that area.

While en route to the scene, updated information for first responders indicated that the accident victims were in the beach area at the end of Mohawk Trail, in the Cedarhurst section of Sandy Hook. The ski boat had struck the rear of the pontoon boat while both were traveling on Lake Zoar, just north of Mohawk Trail.

Mr Pineau, his wife, and two friends were in the pontoon boat that was struck. Medical personnel immediately began caring for him before Newtown Volunteer Ambulance Corps transported him to Danbury Hospital.

Katherine Pineau was also taken by NVAC to the hospital Tuesday evening. She had been treated for minor injuries and released, according to a press release issued Wednesday morning by CT DEEP.

A female passenger on the pontoon boat was checked for minor injuries. She refused treatment at the scene, according to the DEEP release.

Two people were on the ski boat. Neither required medical attention.

Mary Ann Jacob, who resides near the end of Mohawk Trail, said she was inside her home on the lakefront with the windows closed when she heard a loud crashing sound and immediately sensed it was a boat accident. She and her son ran to their own boat, she told

The Newtown Bee, and immediately turned toward what appeared to be two boats in distress that were floating some distance from her dock.

The pontoon style craft had obvious damage to the rear near the outboard motor, she said, while the other was a conventional single hull craft.

As she arrived, Ms Jacob said, the single hull boat was already turning towards shore with Mr Pineau on board to get medical assistance. Ms Jacob proceeded to the crash scene and transferred two female occupants to her boat, leaving a single male on the stranded pontoon craft.

Upon arriving at the dock, Ms Jacob stayed with the two female passengers while her son returned to the pontoon boat to assist in towing it to shore. By this time emergency medical personnel and other first responders were working to assist Mr Pineau.

This incident represents the third boating accident in the area of Ms Jacob's home that she was pressed into responding to with her own boat in the past six or seven years.

Although initially dispatched, NUSAR did not need to respond to the accident scene once it was determined that all passengers on the boats were accounted for. Firefighters cleared after the second ambulance transported the female patient to the hospital, around 11 pm.

Newtown Police and CT DEEP personnel remained on the scene Tuesday night.

The EnCon Boating Accident Reconstruction Unit continues to investigate the accident.

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