Tianna Haist is recovering from facial injuries after a boat collision provoked a man to throw a beer bottle at the girl, her family says.
The 11-year-old Calgary girl went para-sailing Friday evening with her aunt on Okanagan Lake as a birthday present. She was sitting in the boat when the driver side-swiped one of two pleasure boats near the old ferry docks on the Westside. Eleven men and women were having drinks and a barbecue.
As the two parties yelled at each other from a distance, someone in the damaged boat tossed the bottle at the para-sailing driver, said Mark Giffin, a family friend. Tianna was sitting directly in front of him. It struck her in the face, shattering her sun glasses.
There were apparently no bandages on board. Giffin held a white shirt to her wounds and comforted her.
"Her face was cut open," he said. "It was bleeding all over the place, down her face. Her clothes were soaked with blood."
As Tianna screamed in pain, Giffin demanded to know who had tossed the bottle. A man in his 30s confessed he threw the bottle at the boat, Giffin said. Both groups drove to shore, and someone called 911.
An ambulance picked up Tianna from the boat launch and took her to hospital. The others waited 90 minutes before police arrived, Giffin said.
By then, the bottle-tosser had changed his story, claiming he‘d jumped into the lake when the boats collided and threw the bottle in the air, Giffin said.
No one actually saw the man throw the object, he said, but everyone on the para-sail boat heard him admit he‘d tossed it deliberately.
"It was assault. He didn‘t throw it away. He tried to hit the driver and hit the girl instead."
The adults on the two stationary boats saw the para-sail boat approach "at high speed" and threw objects to get someone‘s attention when the drier failed to change direction, said Bart Dyck, who owns a 28-foot cruiser.
"The bottle thrown by one of the passengers on our boat was thrown in self-defence and probably helped avoid what could have been a much worse accident," he wrote in an email.
"After impact, no items were thrown by anyone on either of our boats. The items that were thrown towards the para-sail boat were hurled in a panicked final attempt to get the attention on anyone on the para-sail boat."
RCMP accused the para-sail driver of careless operation and issued him a $288 ticket under the Canada Shipping Act. Police will probe further, said RCMP Sgt. Ann Morrison.
"We do have an investigation into the entire incident."
Tianna had a black eye and stitches to her eyebrow and across her nose Monday. She‘s not sure whether her nose was broken.
Her grandmother, who drove with her to Kelowna General Hospital, was still upset about the apparent attack.
"You have a car accident and you don‘t throw a beer bottle at the driver," said Theresa Bell.
The para-sail driver had a spotter on board the boat. The spotter was getting people into life vests as the driver looked back at three children harnessed together in the air. The sun was in his eyes and he failed to see the two boats tied together until it was too late, Giffin said.
The driver cut the engine, made a hard turn and scraped the side of the Dyck boat‘s port side. The impact burst the bumper buoys between the stationary boats and made passengers fear the damaged boat was taking on water, Dyck said.
"A bit of paint transferred from the stationary boat onto the para-sailing boat," Giffin said. "They were yelling at us and we were yelling at them."
Tianna‘s family is considering a lawsuit but must wait for police to finish their investigation, he said. Top of Page
