Girl dies while tubing during holiday weekend in Tennessee

Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency officers check a pontoon boat. / Contributed photo by Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency
Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency officers check a pontoon boat. / Contributed photo by Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) -- A 10-year-old girl died while tubing on a Tennessee waterway during the Fourth of July holiday weekend, authorities said.

The girl was on a tube being pulled by a pontoon boat on the Tennessee River in Decatur County on Saturday evening when the boat's outward motor hit the tube and the girl, the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency said in a news release Monday.

The agency said it is investigating the death, which is the 16th boating-related fatality on Tennessee waters this year. There were 13 boating-related deaths in Tennessee at this time last year, the agency said.

The agency also said two children were involved in a serious injury accident in the Holder Branch area of Ft. Loudon Lake over the three-day weekend. A personal watercraft that was towing an inner tube with the juveniles on board struck the side of an anchored boat, authorities said.

The TWRA reported eight property damage incidents and 25 arrests on charges of boating under the influence.

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