Father, 9-year-old son killed when jet ski hit barge in Tennessee

A father and his 9-year-old son were killed in a weekend boating accident, police in Tennessee say.

Authorities were called at 7:45 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 9, about a crash between a personal watercraft and a barge on Cheatham Lake, according to the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency.

Investigators learned Steven White, 36, was on board the watercraft with his son, who was not named, when they hit a barge being pushed by a tow boat. Officials didn’t specify the vessel, but WKRN and The Tennessean report it was a jet ski.

After the crash, the tow boat operator sounded the alarm and deckhands put a boat into the water to help White and his son, officials said in a news release. They found White “unresponsive and without a pulse” soon after.

He was rushed to the Cheatham Dam campground where first responders pronounced him dead, the release said. The search for White’s son continued overnight and into the morning as officials scoured the area.

Both were wearing life vests at the time of the crash, officials said.

Search crews recovered the missing boy’s body at about 6:40 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 10, according to the release.

Additional information wasn’t released.

Cheatham County is about 30 miles northwest of downtown Nashville.