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August 20, 2007
BY ERIC SHARP
FREE PRESS OUTDOORS WRITER
PETOSKEY -- One of two Monroe County boat racers injured when their superlight tunnel boat hit a spectator craft last week expects to be released from Northern Michigan Hospital today, but his wife remains in the critical care unit.
Shane Venier of LaSalle suffered a fractured pelvis and fractured collarbone in the crash, while his wife, Julie, also incurred collarbone and pelvis injuries along with several broken ribs. Both are 30.
"We're both healing up," Shane Venier said Sunday in a telephone interview. "I'm feeling a lot better, and I hope they'll release me (Monday). But (Julie) will still be in the hospital, and they said there's a 50-50 chance she'll have to have some surgery."
The Veniers were racing in the superlight tunnel boat class at the Top O' Michigan Marathon Races on the Indian River last Wednesday when they lost control of their small, twin-hulled inflatable boat rounding a corner and hit the side of an anchored spectator boat.
"We lost it in the wake of the boat ahead of me. The river turned right, but when it got squirrelly my boat went left and we hit the anchored boat at 35-40 miles an hour," Shane Venier said, adding that he had been racing the little boats for five years and his wife for four.
His parents, Mike and Linda Venier of LaSalle, were competing in the same race, "and they were the first ones to the accident," Shane Venier said.
Superlight tunnel boats are about 13 feet long with 60-65 horsepower outboard engines. They are steered with a tiller and have a top speed of about 60 m.p.h.
The boats carry a crew of two, often family members, and the codriver moves around the boat to
BY ERIC SHARP
FREE PRESS OUTDOORS WRITER
PETOSKEY -- One of two Monroe County boat racers injured when their superlight tunnel boat hit a spectator craft last week expects to be released from Northern Michigan Hospital today, but his wife remains in the critical care unit.
Shane Venier of LaSalle suffered a fractured pelvis and fractured collarbone in the crash, while his wife, Julie, also incurred collarbone and pelvis injuries along with several broken ribs. Both are 30.
"We're both healing up," Shane Venier said Sunday in a telephone interview. "I'm feeling a lot better, and I hope they'll release me (Monday). But (Julie) will still be in the hospital, and they said there's a 50-50 chance she'll have to have some surgery."
The Veniers were racing in the superlight tunnel boat class at the Top O' Michigan Marathon Races on the Indian River last Wednesday when they lost control of their small, twin-hulled inflatable boat rounding a corner and hit the side of an anchored spectator boat.
"We lost it in the wake of the boat ahead of me. The river turned right, but when it got squirrelly my boat went left and we hit the anchored boat at 35-40 miles an hour," Shane Venier said, adding that he had been racing the little boats for five years and his wife for four.
His parents, Mike and Linda Venier of LaSalle, were competing in the same race, "and they were the first ones to the accident," Shane Venier said.
Superlight tunnel boats are about 13 feet long with 60-65 horsepower outboard engines. They are steered with a tiller and have a top speed of about 60 m.p.h.
The boats carry a crew of two, often family members, and the codriver moves around the boat to
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