Colleton River nightmare: A propeller injury and a sinking boat near Bluffton
Officials are investigating a weekend boat accident on the Colleton River that sank the vessel and left a Beaufort man with a “severe laceration” to his foot.
Police arrived around 6:30 p.m. Saturday to a waterfront address on Okatie Road, located in the Pinckney Colony neighborhood. Medical crews were already treating the man’s foot, which was sliced by the boat’s propeller before it sank. He was later taken to the Memorial Health University Medical Center in Savannah.
The 24-year-old man was driving the boat with a female passenger when he “momentarily lost control” and was thrown from the vessel, the occupants told police. The female, who did not know how to operate the boat, was also thrown off as it began to turn “uncontrollably” in circles.
The male, 24, tried grabbing onto the side of the boat but was again pushed away. The boat’s propellor sliced his foot as it passed by, according to an incident report from the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office.
The boat then crashed and sunk into the river, the police report says. Its occupants were picked up by family members who were nearby in their own boat.
The Colleton River travels east/west through the areas of Okatie and Bluffton. It spills into the Chechessee River near Daws Island.
Saturday’s incident would be investigated by the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources, according to police. The agency is responsible for all boat crash investigations across the state.
It came about three months after a June boat crash that killed a husband and wife in the waters off Hilton Head Island. The Sun City couple drowned after they were trapped beneath a fishing boat that had struck a channel marker and overturned. Two others survived with minor injuries.
This story was originally published September 10, 2025 at 11:43 AM.
