A sailboat approaches a pleasure boat with swimmers on Chickamauga Lake.Terry Segars would have been out this Memorial Day weekend, having fun with friends on Old Hickory Lake.
Instead, the Hendersonville college freshman will spend it in Vanderbilt University Medical Center, recovering from traumatic injuries he received on the lake while tubing with friends last weekend.
His mother, Gail Stephens, 53, said he was on an inner tube, holding onto a bungee cord and being towed by a jet ski. The cord snapped and rebounded into the 18-year-old’s face.
“They said it was like something coming at him at 100 mph,” Stephens said. “It broke his jawbone, his nose. He’s lost his left eye, and he’s got vision in his right eye, but they don’t know to what extent. He broke his thumb; he broke his collarbone.”
As the summer boating season begins this Memorial Day weekend, state officials are reminding water lovers that a fun day on the lake can turn deadly. There were 162 boating accidents during all of 2011, and 24 boaters died.