Man injured in crash of personal watercraft at El Dorado State Park

A crash involving personal watercraft around 12:30 p.m. Saturday at El Dorado State Park left one man seriously injured, a Butler County emergency dispatcher said.

Randy Just, assistant manager at the park, said a man around 40 years old was operating a personal watercraft “in the old Bluestem portion of the lake” when his vessel either ran out of power or “slowed way down.” Another water scooter hit the man from the side, he said.

Just said he did not know how far out the crash happened, but by the time he arrived the man had been pulled to shore and was lying on his vessel.

The man was transported to Wesley Medical Center in serious condition, the dispatcher said.

Just said alcohol does not appear to be a factor in the incident.

“If we can get through a holiday weekend without anybody getting hurt I consider it a success, no matter what the numbers are or the revenue,” he said. “Unfortunately it’s too common. We seemingly have at least one on Memorial or Fourth of July weekend, and most of it is due to negligence and or alcohol. Today I don’t believe that was the case – I think it was just operating the vessels in too close proximity to each other.”

This story was originally published July 4, 2015 at 7:42 PM with the headline "Man injured in crash of personal watercraft at El Dorado State Park."