Wild ride for boaters at the Marseilles Lock and Dam

A couple boaters are lucky to be alive after they were sucked under the Marseilles Lock and Dam.

Conservation Police got a call around 7:30 last night about a boat against the dam gate. When crews got to the Illinois River they found the boat with no one inside but noticed glasses and phones. Firefighters eventually found one of the boaters, 55-year-old John Yorkman of Oak Forest safely on shore. Yorkman told firefighters that 56-year-old Kathleen Konow of Ottawa was with him but had jumped out of the boat.

The Ottawa River Rescue Squad was called and found Konow on the south side of the river on shore. Both were not wearing not wearing life jackets and both were taken to OSF St. Elizabeth Medical Center in Ottawa for minor injuries.

Yorkman says they had been boating on the river for three to four hours when the boat lost power and wouldn’t start. The river took it into the dam where Yorkman and Konow were sucked under and spit out on the other side.

Yorkman was ticketed for being under the influence while operating his boat. There were allegedly open containers and a cooler of alcohol in the crashed boat.