20 Dead In Tour Boat Tragedy

Dozens More Injured When Senior Citizens Cruise Capsizes On NY Lake

(CBS/AP)  A tour boat filled with senior citizens suddenly flipped over on Sunday, tossing dozens of mainly elderly tourists into chilly Lake George in upstate New York, killing 20 people and injuring dozens.

Police cast doubts on early reports that the wake of a large boat had capsized the 40-foot Ethan Allen. Police said they did not know the cause and said their investigation was continuing.

The passengers, pitched into the frigid waters of Lake George, apparently never had a chance to grab life jackets, witnesses say. In minutes, hoards of bystanders raced to their rescue, reports CBS News correspondent Michelle Miller.

"The boat was sideways in the water, and people were screaming," Joanne Rahal, who was in a boat on Lake George when the Ethan Allen flipped, told The Saratogian newspaper. "Bodies were floating by our boat."

Congressman John Sweeney, who talked with survivors in hospital, said the boat flipped in about 30 seconds, giving victims no time to react.

"I saw plenty of life jackets in the water, but nobody was in them," Rick Sause, whose family runs a motel near where the accident took place, told the newspaper.

Many of the bodies were laid out along the shore, and the site was blocked off by police. A hearse, police vehicles and several sport utility vehicles later began taking the dead from the scene.

The glass-enclosed boat was carrying a tour group from the Trenton, Michigan area, and was sailing just north of the village of Lake George, a popular tourist destination about 50 miles north of Albany in the Adirondacks.

With calm waters, clear skies and warm temperatures, it seemed perfect boating weather and the lake bustled with activity. The lake is approximately 32 miles long and nearly 3 miles wide.

Trenton Mayor Gerald Brown said 14 of the passengers were part of a group that left Tuesday on a weeklong bus-and-rail trip to see changing leaf colors along the East Coast.