Another death on the water of the Iowa Great Lakes. There was a accident early Friday morning on West O that left one person dead and another injured.It was a hit and run,one boat ran over the top of another and can going.DNR and local police are looking for a boat with 2 red stripes on it.Another stupid accident on these waters, 3rd death this year along with 3 last year.
Please be carefull on the water.
Ryan Hale
Man thats too bad.last weekend down here we had a drunk hit a bouy,with his wife and kids in the boat.Luckley no one died.
My in-laws have a house in Tri-Boji so I’ve been to the area many times. Weekend summer traffic on the water is nuts, but there are surprisingly few incidents like this one.
My thoughts and prayers go out to all involved.
CR
Just about every time I am out on the weekend I see a close call its to the point I wish I had days off mid-week again. I hope they find the party responsible and they get punished to the FULLEST. Just a thought but maybe at our public launches they ought to have some kind of a memorial it might help wake some of these idiots up 
Some friends of mine were friends of the guy that was killed, been kind of rough on them.
Hope they get the boater the ran.
This story is hitting the papers here in the TC area today.
Search area grows for boat in fatal crash
Robert Franklin, Star Tribune
August 18, 2005 BOAT0818
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It may be an unprecedented search — a seven-state all-points bulletin and a $25,000 reward to find a distinctive hit-and-run vehicle that left a man dead and his wife badly injured.
In this case, it’s a boat, one involved in a collision on northwestern Iowa’s popular West Lake Okoboji.
Authorities say they have been getting up to three dozen tips a day about the incident, which killed a Perry, Iowa, dentist at about 2 a.m. Friday.
Minnesota sheriffs and conservation officers are among those alerted for a predominantly white boat, at least 22 feet long, with two 6- to 8-inch red stripes about a foot apart.
Marina operators, repair shops and the public also have been asked to look out for the boat, but Iowa authorities say there were no arrests or suspects as of Wednesday.
“I can’t remember ever seeing this [type of search] before, at least not in my 20 years here,” said Tim Smalley, boat and water safety specialist with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. “It’s a serious crime, and the Iowa folks are serious about solving it.”
In Spirit Lake, Iowa, Sheriff Greg Baloun agreed. Dickinson County, which includes Iowa’s Great Lakes region, has a population of about 17,000 that swells to 50,000, even 100,000 some summer weekends, and “We have thousands of boats up here,” said Baloun, who has been sheriff for 13 years.
Baloun said he couldn’t recall another hit-and-run boating fatality, but the Okoboji lakes have had their problems — a July boat explosion that injured three people, including a Minneapolis girl, drownings, boats running over swim rafts and into docks. And not necessarily all in the dark.
However, it was nighttime when a boat carrying three couples and believed to be traveling about 15 miles per hour was hit on Friday. The other boat “came out of nowhere and ran over them” from behind, glanced off and fled, the sheriff said.
Michael Brosnahan, 51, was killed, apparently when hit by the bottom of the other boat. His wife, Jill, was seriously injured. The couples were headed home — the Brosnahans stay on the lake during the summer — and “alcohol was not a factor in their boat,” the sheriff said.
No physical evidence
The Iowa Great Lakes Water Safety Council has established a $25,000 reward for the arrest and conviction of the other boater. On the theory that the other boat may have been taken out of the lake, Iowa authorities have asked for help from Minnesota, South Dakota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Nebraska and Missouri.
“Boating accidents are always difficult because of a lack of physical evidence,” said Kevin Baskins, a spokesman for the Iowa DNR. There are no skid marks, of course, and “parts are on the bottom of the lake somewhere if they fell off. “
So authorities are relying heavily on witnesses to come forward and on signs of damage to a boat bottom.
In addition to law officers, marinas and repair shops, tips may come from neighbors, he said, “a case where someone has seen a boat of that description in somebody’s yard and all of a sudden it’s not there anymore.”
Iowa has had 10 boating fatalities this year. Minnesota has had 18, up from 13 for all of last year; most involved people falling overboard, Smalley said, but five resulted from collisions.
There’s no special reason to think that the boat may be from Minnesota, authorities said, and Smalley added, “We have an awful lot of Iowa folks coming up to Minnesota to go boating. I don’t know how many Minnesotans go to Iowa.”
Robert Franklin is at [email protected].
MORE INFO
Tipsters are asked to call Gary Owen at the Iowa DNR, 1-712-260-1018 or the Dickinson County Sheriff’s Department at 1-712-1-712-336-2525. Donations to the reward fund may be sent to the Iowa Great Lakes Water Safety Council Reward Fund, c/o Bank Midwest, P.O. Box 248, Spirit Lake, Iowa, 51360, 1-712-320-2220.
Latest news is that they have found a boat that might have been involved in this accident.It was found in a lift in the Okoboji area.
Ryan Hale
Even if it’s THE boat, they still have to prove who was driving it.
That get easier, once the boat has been located though. I hope the find the person and nail em quickly.
hope they get him soon.
Ryan, please keep us up to date on this. An accident is one thing [bad enough], but taking off afterwords instead of trying to help them is terrible.
Thanks, Bill
They have arrested a 23yr old in relation to the death. Dont have time to post the full story or details, but sure someone here will. He was hiding out in the Dakotas.
goody
I didn’t get all the details either, but alcohol was involved, I think he is facing at least 3 charges.
I heard the news last night.He was from the Souix Falls area.
This terrible accident might lead to speed limits in place at night and a few other changes.I always hated to be night fishing on these lakes and you could hear those boats just flying across the water.
Ryan Hale
Ryan, I read in the paper that a guy I went to high school and college with was in the boat that got hit! Then I find out my cousin Scotty was supposed to be on that boat and had decided not to go out that night. Scary stuff man.
Here’s some info:
THIS LINK has video from a news broadcast.
Our local news with links and info…
Nearman is alleged to have been the operator of a boat involved in a collision that killed Michael Joseph Brosnahan, 51, of Perry and seriously injured his wife Jill, age 50. On August 23, based on in the investigative findings, and in consultation with Dickinson County Attorney, the DCI charged Nearman with operating a motor boat while intoxicated resulting in the death of another person, a class B felony and operating a boat while intoxicated resulting in the serious injury of another person, a class D felony. Nearman was taken into custody by officials in Sioux Falls and is being held on bond of $42,250.
The investigation is ongoing by the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation and Dickinson County Sheriff’s Office. Also assisting were a number of law enforcement agencies and the Okoboji Lakes area fire and rescue.
Investigators also indentified Ryan Deighton, 21, of Sioux Falls, as a passenger on the boat allegedly operated by Nearman; however, it is anticipated no charges will be filed against Deighton.
These charges are merely accusations and defendants are presumed innocent until and unless proven guilt.
Source: http://www.thepress-news.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=15099507&BRD=2204&PAG=461&dept_id=431379&rfi=6
From the Sioux Falls Argus Leader
8/27/05
Boat owner ID’d in Iowa fatality
DCI: Sioux Falls man wasn’t at scene
RUSS OECHSLIN
For the Argus Leader
Published: 08/27/05
Iowa authorities on Friday identified a Sioux Falls man as the owner of the boat involved in a fatal hit-and-run accident earlier this month on West Lake Okoboji.
Richard “Chris” Brandt, 46, who has a condominium on the lake, owned the 26-foot white Sea Ray runabout, Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation officials said.
Authorities spent a week looking for the boat before seizing it from a lift at the lake.
Brandt is the owner of Total Fire Protection, a Brandon sprinkler installation business that employs 100 people.
Iowa DCI agent John Quinn said there are no plans to charge Brandt, who was not in the boat or in the Iowa Great Lakes area when the accident happened.
A woman who answered the phone at Brandt’s home Friday declined to comment.
Justin Nearman, 29, of Sioux Falls is alleged to have been driving Brandt’s boat when it struck another craft at 2 a.m. Aug. 12, then sped off.
Michael Brosnahan, a Perry, Iowa, dentist, was killed in the crash, and his wife, Jill Brosnahan, was injured. She was treated at Avera McKennan Hospital in Sioux Falls.
Four others in the Brosnahans’ boat were not hurt.
Nearman has been charged with operating a motorboat while intoxicated, resulting in a death, and drunken boating resulting in the serious injury of another person. If found guilty of both felonies, he faces up to 30 years in prison.
Officials were unable to give Nearman sobriety tests. The drinking-related charges were based on “evidence obtained during the investigation,” Dickinson County Attorney Rosalise Olson said. She would not say what evidence.
Olson also would not say whether Nearman had permission to use Brandt’s boat.
“I’m not going to talk about what he revealed to us in an interview,” she said. “It’s an ongoing investigation.”
Nearman was arrested Tuesday at his workplace, Elite Electric in Brandon. He was released Wednesday night from the Minnehaha County Jail after posting a $42,250 cash bond.
An extradition hearing is set for Sept. 19, but Nearman’s Sioux Falls lawyer, Nichole Carper, has said he plans to surrender to Iowa authorities.
Stan Munger, a Sioux City lawyer, confirmed Friday that Nearman has hired him to handle the case in Iowa. Munger would not say whether Nearman had made plans to turn himself in or when that might happen.
“I can’t comment on any of the facts of the case right now,” Munger said.
Nearman had not turned himself in as of Friday night, according to the Dickinson County Sheriff’s Department.
Neighbors say Nearman was a frequent guest at Brandt’s West Okoboji condo.
Cher Matthews, the only other tenant on the same floor in Brandt’s building, said the boating tragedy is “very upsetting and sad for everyone around.”
“People weren’t sleeping over this,” she said. “There were a lot of lives ruined.”
Neighbor Sally Nelson said Nearman has done electrical work for her and other condo residents.
“He’s always done good work for us. That’s really all I know about him,” she said.
Nelson said she saw and heard nothing when the boat accident happened.
“I didn’t even hear the sirens,” she said Friday. “I had no idea this was going down until I saw the searchlight. All the commotion on the lake had our dog growling.”
Brandt’s boat sustained little damage but provided clues for investigators, according to Kevin Baskins, an Iowa Department of Natural Resources spokesman.
“It gave us forensic evidence that linked it to the crash,” he said.
Ryan Deighton, 21, of Sioux Falls, a passenger in the boat, is not facing charges. Quinn said Deighton “is cooperating with law enforcement.”
Rod Slings, chief of the Iowa DNR’s safety bureau, said that while Iowa law requires a boat operator to stop following an accident, there are no such requirements for passengers, or for them to report an accident.
Olson has called in the Iowa attorney general’s office to help prosecute the case.
Reporter Melanie Brandert and the Des Moines Register contributed to this report.
Thanks for the info guys. Too bad this had to happen. It ruins alot of lives on both sides. Sad to see.
Thanks, Bill
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