A seven-year-old girl was injured in a tubing accident on Lake Oconee on Saturday.
She was riding on the inflatable raft with an eight-year-old girl at the time, according to Putnam County Sheriff Howard Sills.
Shortly before 5 p.m., the call was made to Putnam County 911 Emergency Services about the accident, and Putnam County Deputy Sheriff Nicholas Fazio responded to the scene on the 100 block of Hickory Point Drive.
Sills said the girl’s father was operating a rental pontoon boat and towing the two girls on the single raft. A storm was brewing in the sky, so he was in the process of docking the boat.
While doing so, the wind blew the pontoon off course and caused the tow rope to become caught in the propeller of the boat motor.
“The propeller started winding in the tow rope of the inflatable raft and pulled it all the way into the stern,” Sills said. “Both girls were thrown from the raft and up in the air.”
The eight-year-old landed in the water and was not hurt, Sills said, but the seven-year-old, who is the boater’s daughter, hit the pontoon and injured her head and arm.
“Putnam County EMS transported her to Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta,” Sills said.
The sheriff said records show the child’s injuries required surgery, but he did not know what condition she was in on Tuesday at the newspaper’s press time.