A holiday outing on Caddo Lake came to a halt Monday evening when a ski boat carrying a family of seven crashed head on into a cypress tree, injuring four-including an 8-year-old-girl, Cass County Game Warden Jason Jones said.
The accident happened about 3:30 p.m. Monday at Caddo Lake State Park, Jones said, when Larry Sullivan, the boat's driver, tried making an evasive maneuver to keep two women on an inner tube from striking a tree when the boat did.
"They were on a ski boat pulling two (females) on an inner tube, with five (people) on the boat," Jones said. "The stretch of river at the accident scene is narrow and all the recent rain has placed more debris in the area than normal."
The two in the inner tube and one of the women riding in the boat remained uninjured while Sullivan suffered broken ribs and a collapsed lung, according to a report. Sullivan is recovering in a hospital in Marshall, Texas
Sullivan's 8-year-old granddaughter received a fractured skull and was flown to Cook's Children's Hospital near Dallas, where she received surgery Tuesday and is still recovering, Jones said.
Todd Duncan, who Jones said is believed to be the young girl's father, was also treated and released from the hospital in Atlanta, Texas; and Greata Duncan, who was also inside the boat, was treated for injuries in Marshall.
Jones said he gathered that some of the family is from Jefferson, Texas, while some of the others are from Atlanta, Texas-located in Morris and Cass counties, respectively.
"(Sullivan) appeared to be making an evasive maneuver to keep the females from striking a tree when the boat struck a tree," Jones said. ""He more or less overcorrected and hit a cypress tree right on the nose of the boat."