Riders jettisoned after boat crash

Jeff Benson

Five men escaped serious injury Wednesday evening when a 20-foot

aluminum powerboat collided with the jetty near 32nd Street.

Rescue crews said they found the boat propped up against the end

of the jetty and nearly capsized.

Three of the men, including two from Newport Beach and one from

Costa Mesa, were returning to Newport Harbor from a surfing trip at

San Clemente Island, Lifeguard Capt. John Blauer said.

They’d picked up an Oregon pair who’d been standing on the Santa

Ana River dredge and the five were en route to the harbor entrance,

he said.

An accident report filed with the Orange County Sheriff’s Harbor

Patrol stated that the cause of the accident was likely “improper

lookout or attention,” Sgt. Karl Von Voigt said.

“In other words, they didn’t see [the jetty] in time to avoid the

accident,” he said.

The Orange County Harbor Patrol and Newport Beach fire and police

arrived shortly before 7 p.m. and found the boat’s captain, who’d

apparently stayed with his boat to ensure it didn’t drift away,

Blauer said.

Two more passengers appeared soon afterward and confirmed that

another pair had jumped into the water and had already run ashore,

Blauer said. All five were later accounted for.

“I believe they saw the boat hit the rocks and everyone made a mad

scramble into the water,” Blauer said.

“I would imagine that the four people who didn’t own the boat

thought the best thing to do was to get on dry land.

“The captain stayed close to the boat because it was his boat.”

Though each of the men had been drinking, Von Voigt said, there

was no probable cause to arrest anyone for being intoxicated.

Wave action dislodged the boat from the jetty’s rocks shortly

after the men were accounted for, fire officials said.

Workers from the city’s general services department later pulled

the boat up to the beach and towed it to a storage location.

Rescue crews treated injuries that the captain and one other

passenger suffered, including minor scrapes and a twisted knee,

Blauer said.