ST. GEORGE — Emergency responders at Sand Hollow State Park responded to an injury involving a boat prop Tuesday afternoon.
The incident occurred around 4:15 p.m. when a family on the water was pulling a man behind a boat on a tube, Park Manager Jonathan Hunt said. When the boat came to a stop, the tube kept moving toward the back of the boat.
The man on the tube, who Hunt described as the grandfather in the group, had a leg in the water and thought the prop had been shut off. His leg ended up making contact with the still-active prop and was cut near the knee.
“He’s going to be just fine,” Hunt said of his injuries, adding that the man received medical care at the scene.
As a general rule, Hunt advises boaters to turn off the boat’s motor if they are stopped and people are nearby in the water.
“A prop cut is something you never want to see on the water,” Hunt said, noting that severe injury can result from a limb coming into contact with the spinning blades of a boat’s propeller. “There’s no such thing as a pretty prop cut.”
This particular instance just turned out better than expected, he said.
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