Overview
- A 70-year-old Woodstock man, identified as Bruce R. Kornegay, was thrown from an 18-foot Bass Tracker and struck by the vessel before being taken to Whitfield Regional Hospital where he later died.
- Authorities say the crash occurred on Lake Demopolis near the Tombigbee River in Marengo County in the afternoon of May 24.
- Investigators with the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency’s Marine Patrol Division reported Kornegay was not wearing a personal flotation device and was not using the boat’s emergency cut-off (kill) switch at the time of the incident.
- ALEA troopers are actively investigating the collision and have not released further findings about the cause beyond the initial safety omissions they cited.
- The case highlights common boating safety failures by showing how not wearing a life jacket and not using a kill switch can leave an operator vulnerable to being ejected and struck by their own boat, a risk officials say the public should guard against.