Teen hurt when boat runs aground

Coast Guard gets help from jet skiiers

By SCOTT DAUGHERTY and HEATHER RAWLYK Staff Writers

Published 07/07/08

A 16-year-old Carroll County girl hurt her head yesterday after the powerboat she was riding ran aground on Rhode River near Edgewater, authorities said.

By Eddie M. Harris - For The Capital
County paramedics help a 16-year-old girl on a dock at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center on Contees Wharf Road. The girl hurt her head yesterday when a boat she was riding in ran aground in Rhode River.

Alexis Michele Paul of Mt. Airy was flown to the Maryland Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore. Battalion Chief Matthew Tobia, a county Fire Department spokesman, said her injuries were serious, but not life-threatening.

Sgt. Ken Turner, spokesman for the state Natural Resources Police, said Matthew Loiacono, 42, of Owings was piloting a 37-foot yacht near High Island about 1:35 p.m. when he struck a sand bar about 2,500 feet from the shoreline of the Smithsonian Research Center. He said Ms. Paul - one of six people on the yacht - fell forward and hit her head on the boat's cabin.

The Coast Guard was the first to respond to the wreck, but the water was too shallow to reach the stranded vessel. The rescuers needed the help of a couple of Good Samaritans on water skis to reach the grounded boat and begin providing first aid, said Petty Officer 3rd Class Ayla Stevens, a Coast Guard spokesman.

She also said civilian members of the Coast Guard Auxiliary ferried county paramedics through the shallow waters. A county fire boat managed to take Ms. Paul to shore, where she met the state police helicopter that took her to the hospital.

"It was a big inter-agency cooperation," said Petty Officer Stevens.

Natural Resources Police are investigating, but Sgt. Turner said alcohol was not a factor in the wreck.

Sgt. Turner described High Island as an "eroded island" and the sandbar as "unforgiving."

"If you don't know where you're going you can run into it very easily - and that is what this person did," he said, noting Ms. Paul was "standing at the wrong place at the wrong time."

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Marker buoy - July 31, 2008

I notified the Coast Guard 2 years ago that a buoy or navigational marker was needed at High Island. No response and nothing has been done. Last week I suggested the same to DNR. Still nor response despite the obvious safety hazard. Since the DNR water police are well aware of the danger why don't they mark it???

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Bruce Dunham - Edgewater, MD - Karma: Bad

IT IS MARKED - July 7, 2008

The sign at the remnants of High Island says DANGER! SHOAL! The local charts are marked as well. This is entirely the vessel operator's fault.

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Paul F. - Shady Side, MD - Karma: Bad

Grounding in the Rhode. - July 7, 2008

Kudos to all the agencies that showed up to assist. They were all very professional and got her safely off the boat to the waiting helicopter. Last we heard she was doing well at Shock Trauma. I would ask that the DNR or CG consider marking some of these hazards, that island was completely submerged when the boat hit it. A couple of markers is a small price to pay for what could have been a deadly accident. (She fell from the cockpit into the cabin.)

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Ted G. - Edgewater, MD - Karma: Bad