Charges laid in Shuswap boating death

Photo: Trevor Rockliffe

A boat sits inside a boat - a man was killed when the speed boat collided into the houseboat on Shuswap Lake on July 3, 2010.

RCMP have laid charges in connection with a two vessel crash on Shuswap Lake which killed an Anglemont, B.C. man.

Leon Michael Reinbrecht, 49, has been charged with criminal negligence causing death and criminal negligence causing bodily harm.

Photo: Trevor Rockliffe

A beer bottle floats in front of the houseboat as it sits with a speed boat parked inside of it.

RCMP Cpl. Dan Moskaluk, says charges were approved and sworn in Kamloops Court Thursday.

Reinbrecht is scheduled to appear in a Kamloops court January 19, 2012.

The charges stem from an incident on July 3, 2010 near Magna Bay on Shuswap Lake when an 18-foot Campion runabout collided head on with a 40-foot houseboat.

The collision occurred about 11:20 p.m. in the middle of the lake shortly after a number of boaters had begun to disperse following a fireworks display.

Moskaluk says there were 13 people on board the houseboat and three on the speedboat at the time of the collision.

The operator of the houseboat, 53-year-old Ken Brown, was pronounced dead at the scene. Several others were injured.

He says members of the Chase RCMP Detachment, Transport Canada and the BC Coroners Service conducted a thorough investigation into the collision.

"We ask that current and future boat operators take the time during the off season period to complete the required B.C. boat operator licencing process and to better educate themselves on safe boating practices in order to do their part in mitigating any similar tragic boating incidents in B.C.," says Moskaluk.