Two teenage girls on a jet ski were killed in a collision with a boat on an Illinois lake Tuesday.
The victims were identified as 13-year-old girl Elle Kim and 16-year-old Sarina Vootkur.
Investigators said Kim was driving the Yamaha jet ski “at a high rate of speed” on Lake Marie with Vootkur as a passenger.
The teens crashed into a Sea Ray Cabin Cruiser driven by a 55-year-old man and “traveling westbound in the same area.”
Witnesses said the speeding jet ski left the boater no chance to avoid the collision.
“Both occupants of the jet ski, who were wearing life vests, were knocked unconscious and thrown into the water,” the Lake County Sheriff’s Office said.
“There were a total of four occupants on the Sea Ray, and they immediately pulled the girls from the water, called 911, and rendered aid.”
The girls were helped to the shore with blunt-force injuries. They died at a local hospital.
“There were young, very young, very inexperienced,” a boater said.
“It’s not like a road where you put brakes on. I mean, they’re just going, and you have no control. It’s scary, really it is.”
