NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — They heard the screams and jumped in to help: two fisherman came to the rescue of 4 people whose boat capsized on Old Hickory Lake Monday night.
"All you could hear was just screams and I couldn't imagine being in the water with an upside-down boat in the pitch black and all you can do is scream," Austin Smith explained.
It was a frightening end to Memorial Day weekend.
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"I couldn't imagine going at a rate of speed on the water and flipping a boat," Smith added.
It was around 9 o'clock at night when Smith and his buddy Hunter Harris, heading in from fishing, heard the calls for help.
"Two good ole country boys jumped in and helped out," Smith explained.
They discovered a capsized boat and 4 people in the water.
"The helicopter was over top of us assisting with lights. When we approached the boat, three of them were swimming around and one was holding on to the boat," Smith said. "We don't know if he had tied it to his leg or if he got tangled up in the rope on the boat, but we had to cut the rope and get him in the boat. I could only imagine if that boat started sinking with that tied to his leg."
It was a concerning series of events for the fishermen coming to the rescue.
"It's a different situation when you roll up in water that you know is super deep right there by the dam and there's four people in the water without life jackets and you don't see a life jacket in site," Smith said. "So your immediate reaction is 'Get them out of the water.' If you are on the water, you need a life jacket."
Fortunately, all 4 boaters were able to get in his boat and were taken to land, uninjured. Smith hoped the story would help raise awareness on boater safety, and he praised God for watching over.
"If God wasn't there maybe nobody would have heard their screams ya know. What if it was a little later and nobody was out there? We'd be coming to a different story today. Definitely glad we were out there and able to jump in and spring into action to help those folks out," Smith said. "I don't need an atta boy or a good job, it's our responsible to be helping and kind in this world. There's not a lot of good things that happen in this world nowadays so if you can be a part of that, that better step in the world of being kind and just being a genuine human being just do it."
The driver of the capsized boat was arrested for Boating Under the Influence (BUI). The TWRA said that he was one of 13 BUI arrests they made over the holiday weekend.
The agency added that one person died on the water over the weekend in East Tennessee on the Watts Bar Reservoir late Saturday.
They said that a 19-year-old man jumped out of a boat, but never resurfaced. His body was recovered early Sunday. There have now been 8 boating fatalities in Tennessee this year alone.
