Two Women Critically Hurt After Jet Ski Strikes LIRR Bridge

Two women are in critical condition after the jet ski they were riding on collided with a cement stanchion of a Long Island Rail Road bridge, officials said.

The women, ages 24 and 29, were heading east in Reynolds Channel on a 2009 Yamaha jet ski when the watercraft struck the bridge, west of the Long Beach Bridge, at about 7 p.m. in Island Park, Nassau Police said.

The collision caused the women, whom police did not identify, to fall into the water unconscious, police said.

A father and son fishing nearby witnessed the accident, went into the water and with assistance from a couple on another unrelated jet ski brought the victims to shore, police said.

The Long Beach Fire Department, in a post on its Facebook page, said the good Samaritans brought one of the women to the shore, but the fire department's Water Rescue Team located the other woman and transported her to the shore on the back of the fire department's rescue ski.

One woman was in respiratory distress, and the other was in cardiac arrest when they were transported to the hospital, where they are both listed in critical condition, fire officials said.

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