Death on Lake Burton, Driver from Seneca

A 7-year-old boy lost his life on Lake Burton in Rabun County, Georgia. Sister station WRBN reports that the Sheriff’s Office released this statement. “We were dispatched to Arizona Lane. off Lake Burton for a boating accident. Once the officers got on the scene, DNR was also dispatched. We had a fatality of a 7-year-old boy.” The incident involved only one boat with two adults and four children on board. Mark McKinnon of the DNR reports that witness claim. “The operator made a very hard turn, bow of the vessel hit a large wake, a lot of water came into the vessel at that point. The impact with that wake actually caused two of the children, who were riding up front in the bow of the boat to fall out, and one of those children went under the boat, the 7-year-old male, and he was caught in the prop and as a result, he did not survive. The operator was very cooperative with us; at the scene there was no sign that he was impaired in any way.” The driver of the boat was identified as Dennis Ficarra of Seneca. No charges have been filed yet, and DNR is still investigating the accident.