Man dies after being ejected from boat on Shasta Lake

A Northern California man died when his boat struck the shoreline, ejecting him from the vessel, Shasta County officials said. 

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Dispatchers received a call for help at Shasta Lake at 5:20 p.m. Thursday. When Shasta County Sheriff’s deputies arrived, they learned a boat with three occupants, a man, a woman and a child, had been traveling near Town Creek Cove on the Sulanharas Creek arm of Shasta Lake. While recreating, the vessel hit the shoreline hard enough to eject all three people.

Witnesses in a civilian boat were the first on the scene, helping the three injured people onto their boat and taking them to Bridge Bay Marina, the sheriff’s office said. Once at the marina, an ambulance took the man and the juvenile to a nearby hospital. There, the man, identified as Vingenzo Anthony Colletti, 47, was pronounced deceased. Colletti was living in Palo Cedro, a community just east of Redding. 

The sheriff’s office said it is believed the child was wearing a life jacket but the adults were not. The crash is under investigation by the Shasta County Coroner’s Office, which will also conduct an autopsy.

This is the second tragedy on Shasta Lake in recent months. In April, a 5-year-old child entered the water without a life jacket and drowned.

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“The Shasta County Sheriff’s Office encourages the public to always have proper safety equipment while on waterways and to always wear a Personal Floatation Device,” the department wrote in a press release.