State Probe Into Boat Crash Continues

By Andrew Gorosko

A spokeswoman for the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP), which is investigating the cause of a serious late night boating accident on Lake Zoar on July 5, said this week that the probe is continuing.

“It’s still under investigation,” DEEP spokeswoman Cyndy Chanaca said July 13, adding that the agency has no new information to disclose about the incident.

In the accident that occurred about 11:30 pm on July 5, six of 11 eleven people who had been onboard a 21-foot MasterCraft ski boat traveling on Lake Zoar were transported to Danbury Hospital for treatment of injuries after the boat ran aground on the Southbury shoreline of the lake near the northern boundary of Kettletown State Park.

Emergency service personnel made a major response to the incident, staging their activities in the Algonquin Trail area of Sandy Hook, a section which provided the best boat access to the accident scene.

Those people who were transported to the hospital for treatment of injuries were: Anthony Buzzanca, Jr, 22, of Easton; William Sullivan, 22, of Easton; Thomas Lane, 21, of Easton; Kristen Paolino, 19, of Trumbull; Kara Yakosh, 20, of Trumbull, and Hannah Cebry, 21, of Burlington.

A Danbury Hospital spokeswoman said on July 13 that Buzzanca and Cebry each were admitted to the hospital on July 6 and then discharged on July 7. Sullivan, Lane, and Paolino each were treated at the hospital and then released, the spokeswoman said. The hospital has no records concerning a person named Yakosh, according to the spokeswoman.

Other people on the boat who were not transported to the hospital were: Ron Basak-Smith, 22, of Easton; Jonathan Edwards, 21, of Easton; Dean Lorusso, 21, of Easton; Meghan Ledan, 20, of Bethel, and Meghan Merritt, 22, of Lakeville, officials said.

Ms Chanaca said that DEEP investigations into such boating accidents may take weeks or months to complete.

State environmental conservation police are being assisted in the probe by the state’s boating accident reconstruction unit. The investigators spent several hours collecting accident evidence on July 6.