Woman killed, man injured in Lanier boat accident

GAINESVILLE - Georgia Department of Natural Resources (DNR) officials Monday afternoon have identified a woman was killed and a man injured in a boat accident on Lake Lanier Sunday night.

Mark McKinnon said the woman is 29-year-old So Yang Kim, and the male is 34-year-old Young Tae Shim. Both are from Buford.

DNR Sgt. Lee Brown said the call came around 9:20 p.m. The accident happened in the Chestatee Bay area of Lake Lanier, just off Browns Bridge Road. Brown said preliminary information Sunday night indicated the boat had gone aground and turned upside down.

"The male was hollering for help. Some passerby boats heard the screams and came over and helped. That's how they (victims) were able to get a hold of us," Brown said.

Hall and Forsyth county fire services responded. Brown said they were able to get the male victim out of the boat and transported to Northeast Georgia Medical Center. He suffered minor injuries.

The female was pronounced dead on the scene, according to Brown. He said an autopsy was planned Monday.

Brown described the vessel as a Monterey cabin cruiser, well over 20 feet in length. Brown said the victims are from the Buford-Atlanta area. He said he believed they are a married couple.

He said DNR's Critical Incident Reconstruction Team was on the scene Monday afternoon taking measurements and photographs.

While teams worked in the water, Brown said they hope to get the boat upright Monday and to a DNR facility.

"It'll help our investigators more once the boat gets off the water," Brown said.

In the meantime, a lot of details in the incident remained unclear.

"Where they were at, where they were coming from, where they were going, that's all trying to put the pieces of the puzzle together," Brown said.

Traumatic boat accidents aren't common during March, but Brown said the weather may have had something to do with the the victims' decision to go for a ride.

"With all the cold rainy weather, (then we) had a beautiful weekend, a lot of folks were on the lake yesterday (Sunday)."

Brown said authorities expected to release the names and ages of the victims late Monday afternoon.