A 13-year-old girl and a 16-year-old boy both were fatally injured late Tuesday afternoon in a jet ski crash on Lake Marie in northwest suburban Antioch, officials said.
According to a Lake County Sheriff’s news release, about 5:15 p.m., the Lake County Marine Unit and Patrol Division responded to a jet ski and boat crash on Lake Marie where a 16-year-old girl from Lake Forest, Calif., and a 13-year-old girl from Long Grove were on a jet ski collided with a Sea Ray Cabin Cruiser, the release said.
The 16-year-old girl was operating a Yamaha jet ski traveling north near the channel to Grass Lake, north of the Elime Road Peninsula. About the same time, the boat was headed west in the same area near Grass Lake, the release said.
Witnesses told officials the jet ski was moving at a high rate of speed, directly toward the boat operated by a 55-year-old man. The man, from Antioch, was unable to avoid a collision and the two watercrafts struck each other, officials said.
Both teens on the jet ski, whom were wearing lifejackets, were thrown unconscious into the water. Four people in the boat immediately pulled the teens from the water and called 911 and rendered aid, the release said.
One of the injured teens was taken to shore in the Sea Ray, and the other teen was transported in another passing boat. The teens were then taken to Advocate Condell Medical Center in Libertyville where they both were pronounced dead.
An autopsy was scheduled Tuesday morning, an Lake County officials were investigating.