3 Scouts Dead After Sailboat Hits Power Line In Texas

Three Boy Scouts have died after a sailboat they were aboard struck a low-hanging power line on a lake east of Dallas, Texas, over the weekend.

The Scouts were sailing in a Hobie Cat on the Lake O' the Pines when the catamaran's mast snagged the transmission cable.

Wardens from the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department found the boat on fire about 300 yards north of the cable, according to The Dallas Morning News. The bodies of two of the Scouts, apparently electrocuted, were found in the water nearby.

A third, 11, was rescued by another boat, where he was given CPR before being transported to an ambulance. He was taken to a hospital in Shreveport, La., but authorities said Monday that he had succumbed to his injuries.

Daniel Anderson, chief operating officer for the East Texas Boy Scouts of America, was quoted by The Associated Press as saying the boys were at a campout at the lake.

"There's literally hundreds of campouts like this every year in East Texas and nothing like this ever happens," Anderson said, according to the AP.

Last year, a man was severely injured in Gulfport, Miss., when a sailboat on a trailer he was parking hit a power line.

US Sailing, which publishes regulations for yacht racing, includes a paragraph in the rules that says, "All US Sailing events and championships, at all levels, shall be held at sites free of power line hazards."