2 teens killed on Chain O’ Lakes when jet ski crashes with boat

Two teenage girls were killed in a crash between a personal watercraft and a boat on Lake Marie on the Chain O’ Lakes.

The Lake County Sheriff’s Office reported that a 13-year-old girl from Long Grove and a 16-year-old girl from Lake Forest, California, were killed when the jet ski they were riding crashed with a Sea Ray Cabin Cruiser boat Tuesday evening.

Police said witnesses reported that the jet ski was “traveling at a high rate of speed directly toward the Sea Ray” and that the boat’s operator, a 55-year-old man from Antioch, was unable to avoid a collision. The occupants of the jet ski were wearing life vests but were knocked unconscious and thrown into the water, police said. The four occupants in the Sea Ray immediately pulled the girls from the water, called 911 and rendered aid, according to a news release.

One of the girls was taken to the shore by the Sea Ray, and the other was taken by another passing boat, police said. They later were taken to Advocate Condell Medical Center in Libertyville.

No one else was injured in the crash, authorities said.

Authorities said the older girl was operating a Yamaha watercraft when the crash happened about 5 p.m. Tuesday as the jet ski traveled in a northerly direction near the channel to Grass Lake, just north of Elime Road in Antioch Township.

The sheriff’s office and Illinois Conservation Police are investigating the crash.