The operator of boat involved in an accident at Winfield City Lake on Memorial Day Weekend that critically injured a 10-year-old girl will be in Cowley County District Court in September.
Cowley County Attorney Larry Schwartz told Cowley Post Thursday morning Jacob T. Williams, 34, of Haysville, will have a hearing on Sept. 13.
Williams was arrested on a charge of boating under the influence on May 26 following the accident that sent Rielynn Martin, also of Haysville, to a Wichita hospital in critical condition.
Martin was put into a medically-induced coma for nearly a week and underwent emergency brain surgeries, fought pneumonia and a staph infection, according to a Facebook page by the family with updates on her progress.
She woke up on June 1.
A full report on the accident still has not been released by the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks, who is overseeing the investigation. Several requests for the report have been made by Cowley Post this summer.
Schwartz said the report is not yet complete to his knowledge and that he is still waiting on more information from the department.
He hopes to receive it prior to the Sept. 13 hearing — which at the moment, is still confined to a boating under the influence case.
Martin was injured when two boats collided at the lake just before 5 p.m. that Friday of the Memorial Day Weekend.
Kansas Game Warden Clint Lee, who was on scene that day at the lake, said days after the incident five people were injured in the accident — an adult male, a juvenile male, two other juvenile females — one of which was transported to the hospital with minor injuries — and Martin.
Lee said one boat was registered to Sedgwick County and the other to Sumner County, with three people on one and eight on the other.
As far as who was on which boat, that information is still pending and under investigation, Lee said. All passengers were from outside Cowley County.
Lee added one boat was traveling not more than idle speed, while the other was traveling faster — but not believed to be at an excessive speed.
“The biggest concern was negligent operations,” Lee told Cowley Post in May.
Schwartz said Martin was on the boat operated by Williams and on it with permission.
Williams is known to the Martin family, Schwartz added.
