20 Dead In Tour Boat Tragedy

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.

The trip was arranged through Canadian-based Shoreline Tours, Brown said. Representatives of Shoreline could not immediately be reached for comment by The Associated Press.

"It's a sad time in our community. We're a small community, and we handle things differently in small communities," Brown said. "We know names. We know faces. We have relatives. It's all intertwined. It's a sad day for us."

Twenty-seven people were taken to a hospital in nearby Glens Falls. Some suffered broken ribs and others complained of shortness of breath. Seven survivors were admitted, hospital spokesman Jason White said.

Police investigators were at the hospital late Sunday to question survivors and get an accurate count.

The National Transportation Safety Board arrived on the scene early Monday. Officials said they expect to raise the sunken boat in the next few days, Miller reports.

Police said the boat pilot was interviewed. The New York Times reported that investigators had not tested Richard Paris for drug or alcohol use because there was no evidence of intoxication.

The boat's owner, Jim Quirk, whose family has operated Shoreline Cruises for decades, told the Glens Falls Post-Star: "It is a tragedy and it's very unfortunate."

The boat was last inspected in May 2005 and no problems were found, according to Wendy Gibson, spokeswoman for the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation.

As dusk fell, several police boats were on the water, and at least half a dozen divers were in a small cove on the west side of the lake. The Ethan Allen lay at the bottom of the lake in 70 feet of water.

"It should have been a day of enjoyment," said state police Superintendent Wayne Bennett, who was out boating on the lake earlier Sunday. "Instead, it was one of sadness."

Lake George is an enormous and historic body of water, feeding into Lake Champlain and from there into the St. Lawrence River and on to the Atlantic Ocean. The lake bottom has many wrecks, at least one dating back to the French and Indian war in the mid-18th century.