The Maine Warden Service said Monday that it has identified the owner of the pontoon boat that was allegedly involved in a hit-and-run collision on Wadleigh Pond in Lyman late Saturday night.
Sgt. Tim Spahr, who is overseeing the investigation, said wardens located the pontoon boat and identified its owner, but the warden service will not be releasing names because the incident remains under investigation and no one has been charged.
Spahr said the operator of the pontoon boat crashed into a 16-foot-long fiberglass motorboat, causing the motorboat to sink and injuring the four people on board.
All four people it to shore safely, but one person suffered a concussion and some had to be treated at local hospitals. None of their injuries was considered to be life-threatening, according to Spahr.
Spahr said the people in the motorboat had gone out for a late night boat ride and had activated the boat’s navigation lights when it was struck by the pontoon boat, which the victims told wardens did not have its lights on. The operator of the pontoon boat then fled the crash scene.
“After the hit-and-run, we conducted a search for the pontoon boat. It had been abandoned. The people who were on board fled,” Spahr said. There is no public boat launch on Wadleigh Pond.
The pontoon boat has been seized as evidence.
Spahr said game warden investigators were having trouble locating the suspected operator of the pontoon boat, whom they would like to interview before any charges can be filed.
It was unclear Monday night whether the owner and operator of the boat are the same person.
Dennis Hoey can be contacted at 791-6365 or at:
dhoey@pressherald.com
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