Two fatal boating incidents claim 3 lives in Ontario

Disclaimer: The following details may be disturbing to some readers.

Three people have died in two separate boating incidents in Southern Ontario over the past week. The first involved a power boat that Toronto Police say hit a breakwater wall at Tommy Thompson Park on Lake Ontario and subsequently capsized the night of May 31.

Tommy Thompson Park on a map — Photo courtesy of Google Maps

There were 10 people on board at the time of the crash, and eight were rescued from the water and from the boat by Toronto Police’s Marine Unit. It took police several hours before they found a 34-year-old man and a 24-year-old woman dead inside the boat. The young woman has been identified by her parents as Megan Wu, and a gofundme has been set up by her family to help with the legal investigation and civil case. According to her father’s post on gofundme, her body was found after the boat was lifted out of the water. She was trapped below deck and unable to escape the wreck. Toronto Police say the investigation into the cause of the crash is ongoing.

Megan Wu is pictured here in a photo posted to a gofundme account by her father, William Wu. Photo courtesy of William Wu/Gofundme

Over the weekend, on June 4, a 33-year-old Mississauga man died after the inflatable dinghy he was in with his seven-year-old daughter overturned in the Eramosa River at Rockwood Conservation Area, northeast of Guelph. OPP Const. Joshua Cunningham confirmed that the man was not wearing a lifejacket at the time, but the daughter was. Both were pulled from the water by bystanders, and the man was taken to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead. The daughter was treated for minor injuries at the scene.

As the weather becomes nicer and more people hit the water, Cunningham wants to stress the importance of wearing a lifejacket.

“We see a lot of times where the parents put a lifejacket on their kids but not themselves and you need to also look out for yourself,” he said. “A lifejacket doesn’t do a whole lot of good unless it’s on properly.”

Wellington County Ontario Provincial Police are still trying to piece together what led to the man’s death and are asking the people who witnessed the event to contact them using the non-emergency line at 1-888-310-1122.