By Jim Hannah
The Cincinnati Enquirer

PHOTO GALLERY

Boat under inspection

DAYTON, Ky. - A state prosecutor said Tuesday that a 54-year-old man from the Columbus area is the only suspect in a hit-and-run boat crash on the Ohio River that injured six people last weekend.

Dayton police seized Glenn C. Colann's 40-foot Baja speedboat earlier in the day.

The boat is named "Snap Decision," the same name boaters said was on a cigarette boat spotted in the area of the crash Friday night. The boat, a 2000 model valued at about $225,000, was dropped off Tuesday at Watertown Yacht Club in Dayton.

Colann, who lives in the Columbus suburb of Gahanna, was with the boat at the marina Tuesday morning and referred all questions to his attorney, Jim Morgan of Newport.

"My client didn't turn over the boat sooner because he didn't know authorities were looking for it," said Morgan. "He doesn't live in the area. We voluntarily turned over the boat promptly after being contacted by authorities Monday evening."

Morgan refused to say whether Colann was driving the boat Friday night, or even if he was in the Cincinnati area.

There was visible damage to one of the boat's three outdrives, but Morgan said he did not believe the damage was consistent with what a collision with another craft would have caused.

Campbell County Commonwealth Attorney Jack Porter said a witness has come forward to say Colann said he thought he had hit a floating tree while cruising the Ohio River in darkness late Friday.

Witnesses to the crash said the 21-foot pleasure craft acted like a ramp, sending the larger speedboat flying over the top of it near the Queen City Riverboat landing. Police said the speedboat was racing through a no-wake zone just before the accident happened.

Six of the seven passengers aboard the small craft were injured.

Officials said three people were still in area hospitals Tuesday recovering from injuries.

Brian Maher, the smaller boat's owner, and Doug Howard were both in fair condition at University Hospital. Bruce Bocson was at St. Luke East Hospital. His condition was not available.

"We know the suspect (Colann) was driving his boat prior to the collision," Porter said. "We have witnesses that will testify to that. We are trying to verity that his boat was indeed the one that collided with the victim's boat."

On Tuesday evening, the boat was towed to a warehouse in neighboring Bellevue for police to continue their inspection.

Dayton police Sgt. Raleigh Barnett said officers want to use a specialized crane to lift the boat off its trailer to examine the hull of the craft.

Porter said forensic investigators will go over the craft with a magnifying glass looking for any piece of the victim's boat that may be embedded in the fiberglass hull.

"I believe we have the right boat," said Barnett, who is leading the investigation. "Who was on the boat at the time of the crash has yet to be determined. We are trying to piece everything together without being accusatory."

Investigators say they believe Colann was at the Ludlow Bromley Yacht Club an hour or two before the crash. No one at the club would comment on Tuesday.

An employee of Four Seasons marina on Kellogg Avenue said the speedboat had been docked at that harbor over the weekend.

Tom Keane, a 57-year-old Anderson Township man who has his 47-foot houseboat docked at Four Seasons Marina, said Tuesday he has no doubt that police will find the boat responsible, because most boaters look out for one another.

"Boaters are like truckers, everyone helps everyone," Keane said. "That's why the boat will be found."

Dale Foley, manager at Mariner's Landing and owner of Reflections Boat Cleaning, said the boater responsible for the accident violated a sacred rule of boating by leaving the scene after hitting something in the water, he said.

"It's an unwritten code: Everyone helps one another in the water," said Foley, a 31-year-old Mount Washington resident. "This guy kept going because he was only concerned about himself. That's not a boater, not at all."

Joe Frankenhoff, whose sportfisher yacht is docked at Four Seasons, says most boaters are responsible but that most every weekend he sees at least one person acting irresponsibly, usually by going too fast or creating large wakes near floating marinas.

"Most of the time I see something that bothers me, they're in a cigarette boat," said Frankenhoff, 41, of Madeira.

"There are boaters and then there are weekend boaters. I see a lot of weekenders in their go-fasters, and they don't understand the rules and courtesies of boating."

Where case is headed

What's next in the investigation of a speedboat that crashed into another boat Friday night on the Ohio River:

Dayton, Ky., police towed the boat Tuesday afternoon to a secure warehouse in neighboring Bellevue. Forensic investigators will go over the craft with a magnifying glass looking for any piece of the victim's boat that may be embedded in the fiberglass hull.

Campbell County Commonwealth's Attorney Jack Porter will meet today with police to review all the evidence collected to determine what the next step of the investigation will be.

Law enforcement officials say the are looking for anything that will prove the speedboat collided with the victims' boat and who was driving at the time.

Dan Klepal of the Enquirer contributed to this report. E-mail jhannah@enquirer.com