[UPDATE, 7-21-14: The suspect is believed to have been intoxicated and traveling too fast, according to police. He had refused to take sobriety tests at the scene.
He is being held on a $500,000 bail, as ordered at a court hearing last Friday, July 18.]
A 46-year-old man from Renton has been arrested and booked into King County Jail for investigation of homicide after a motorboat he piloted allegedly crashed into a sailboat off Leschi last night. Additional charges are pending.
According to Seattle Police Det. Drew Fowler, Seattle Police Harbor Patrol Units and patrol officers responded to a reported collision around 10:30 p.m. July 16. The incident occurred on Lake Washington about a half-mile off shore of the 400 block of Lake Washington Boulevard in Leschi.
A motorboat and a sailboat, both involved in the collision, were disabled when police arrived. A passing boater towed the sailboat to a Leschi dock; the Harbor Patrol towed the motorboat to the same dock.
One of the sailboat’s seven passengers, a 24-year-old woman, died from the injuries she sustained during the collision.
Two others were taken to Harborview Medical Center with serious, but non-life-threatening, injuries. Hospital spokesperson Susan Gregg told The Seattle Times that a man in his early 40s remained in the Intensive Care Unit as of this morning (July 17), while a woman in her early 30s was treated and released.
One passenger on the motorboat suffered minor injuries but declined treatment, according to Seattle Fire spokesperson Kyle Moore, in the Seattle P-I.
The Traffic Collision Investigation Squad is investigating.
Alcohol may have been involved in the collision, according to Fowler.