July 24 (UPI) -- Authorities said one person is dead and six others injured after a boat crash on a Georgia lake in the early hours of Saturday.
The Georgia Department of Natural Resources said a cigarette boat with two people on board crashed into a pontoon boat with seven people aboard on Lake Tobesofkee in Bibb County about 2 a.m. Saturday.
Everyone aboard the pontoon boat sustained injuries, while the two people aboard the cigarette boat were not injured. The DNR said the cigarette boat's occupants left the scene before authorities arrived and were located at a nearby home.
The seven people from the pontoon boat were taken to local hospitals and one of them, identified as William Childs, 22, was declared dead from an open head injury.
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Bibb County Coroner Leon Jones said it was immediately clear that Childs' head injury was going to be fatal.
"I knew he was going to die," Jones told ABC News.
Jones said another of the injured parties, a woman in her 20s, was taken to the ICU with a head injury and was on a ventilator. The other five people were treated for minor injuries and have since been released from the hospital.
Fish N Pig, the restaurant that employs the seven people who were aboard the pontoon boat, said the vessel had been anchored when it was struck by the "speeding boat."
The crash is being investigated by the DNR Critical Incident Reconstruction Team.
