{"id":13367,"date":"2017-07-14T17:52:07","date_gmt":"2017-07-14T21:52:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/raritaneng.com\/?p=13367"},"modified":"2017-07-14T17:52:07","modified_gmt":"2017-07-14T21:52:07","slug":"boat-head-dept-he-sacrificed-his-own-life-says-friend-of-lake-anna-boating-accident-victim","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.raritaneng.com\/blog\/boat-head-dept-he-sacrificed-his-own-life-says-friend-of-lake-anna-boating-accident-victim\/","title":{"rendered":"Boat Head Dept: \u2018He sacrificed his own life\u2019 says friend of Lake Anna boating accident victim"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<h1><a href=\"http:\/\/raritaneng.com\/electric-marine-toilets\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/raritaneng.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/charles-william-bowen-2.jpegquality85stripallw770stripall.jpg\" srcset=\"https:\/\/localtvwtvr.files.wordpress.com\/2017\/07\/charles-william-bowen-2.jpeg?quality=85&amp;strip=all&amp;w=770 770w, https:\/\/localtvwtvr.files.wordpress.com\/2017\/07\/charles-william-bowen-2.jpeg?quality=85&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1540 1540w, https:\/\/localtvwtvr.files.wordpress.com\/2017\/07\/charles-william-bowen-2.jpeg?quality=85&amp;strip=all&amp;w=150 150w, https:\/\/localtvwtvr.files.wordpress.com\/2017\/07\/charles-william-bowen-2.jpeg?quality=85&amp;strip=all&amp;w=300 300w, https:\/\/localtvwtvr.files.wordpress.com\/2017\/07\/charles-william-bowen-2.jpeg?quality=85&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1024 1024w\" alt=\"\" width=\"770\" height=\"433\" data-attachment-id=\"1028589\" data-permalink=\"http:\/\/wtvr.com\/2017\/07\/03\/friend-of-lake-anna-boating-accident-victim-speaks-out\/charles-william-bowen-2\/#main\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/localtvwtvr.files.wordpress.com\/2017\/07\/charles-william-bowen-2.jpeg?quality=85&amp;strip=all&amp;strip=all\" data-orig-size=\"1920,1080\" data-comments-opened=\"0\" data-image-meta='{\"aperture\":\"0\",\"credit\":\"\",\"camera\":\"\",\"caption\":\"\",\"created_timestamp\":\"0\",\"copyright\":\"\",\"focal_length\":\"0\",\"iso\":\"0\",\"shutter_speed\":\"0\",\"title\":\"\",\"orientation\":\"0\"}' data-image-title=\"Charles William Bowen\" data-image-description=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/localtvwtvr.files.wordpress.com\/2017\/07\/charles-william-bowen-2.jpeg?quality=85&amp;strip=all&amp;w=300&amp;strip=all\" data-large-file=\"http:\/\/raritaneng.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/charles-william-bowen-2.jpegquality85stripallw770stripall.jpg\"><\/a><\/h1>\n<h1>Boat Head Dept Reports: &lsquo;He sacrificed his own life&rsquo; says friend of Lake Anna boating accident victim<\/h1>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div><noscript>&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;Please enable Javascript to watch this video&amp;lt;\/p&amp;gt;<\/noscript><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>SPOTSYLVANIA COUNTY, Va. &#8212; The man killed in a boating accident Saturday on Lake Anna in Spotsylvania County is being credited by friends for saving lives by sacrificing his own.<\/p>\n<p>The body of Charles William Bowen, 53, of Orange, Virginia, was recovered several hours after the Saturday evening incident on the water where two children on inner-tubes were hurt.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;They had just left the dock and were going home real quick, wanted to get a few things from the house and then they were going to come back and watch the fireworks,&rdquo; said Bowen&rsquo;s friend Mark Breeden.<\/p>\n<p>Breeden said his friend of 27 years was in the boat with a young man named Robert who was like a son to him, when he noticed a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.raritaneng.com\/\">boat<\/a>&nbsp;in his path.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Two [people] in a boat made [an] evasive move to avoid another boat heading in their direction, ejecting both occupants from the boat,&#8221; a preliminary investigative report from the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries read. &#8220;The boat then proceeded to run over the line of two minors on tubes that were being towed by a separate <a href=\"http:\/\/raritaneng.com\/raritan-product-line\/marine-toilets\/phc\/\">boat<\/a>.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;He had to make a decision,&rdquo; said Breeden. &ldquo;He said hold on Robert and he turned the boat as hard as he could to avoid any kind of accident.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>The children on the tubes were taken to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries, the report indicated. Robert also suffered a non-life threatening injury.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Chuck did everything he could to save those kids on that tube.&nbsp; I don&rsquo;t think they are here today if it&rsquo;s not for Chuck, I think he sacrificed his own life,&rdquo; said Breeden.<\/p>\n<p>Chuck was pulled from the lake several hours after the accident while his sons and Breeden painfully looked on.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Everyone was very upset his sons would not leave the lake. They wouldn&rsquo;t go anywhere until they found their dad,&rdquo; said Breeden.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;There were probably 50 people at the house when the boys finally did come home,&rdquo; he added. &ldquo;Like I told his boys, we didn&rsquo;t lose Chuck, we still have him in our heart and in our minds. All the memories he gave us will live on forever.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Breeden says Saturday was the first time this season Bowen was able to get his <a href=\"http:\/\/raritaneng.com\/\">boat<\/a>&nbsp;on the water after he made repairs to it. Breeden and his family were invited to join Bowen for fireworks on the water.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Very good chance I could have easily been on that boat. It may have been different, I like to talk, so I may have held him up,&rdquo; said Breeden. &ldquo;I&rsquo;d like to think he&rsquo;d still be here if I was on that boat.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Friends say Bowen has lived near Lake Anna for 18 years with his three sons.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;His sons were Kevin, Matt and James and Robert was like a son to him,&rdquo; said Breeden. &ldquo;What Chuck did was for his boys, it wasn&rsquo;t for him.&nbsp; He worked so hard to set his sons up,&rdquo; he said.<\/p>\n<p>His sons say he had the biggest heart of anyone they knew and he was dedicated to his work as a Matco tools distributor after a career as a master auto technician.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;He loved motors, working on stuff and he loved selling tools,&rdquo; said Breeden.<\/p>\n<p>Breeden says he was always someone you could count and led by example.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;He was a great leader of men.&nbsp; He meant a lot to me he was like a brother, great friend,&rdquo; said Breeden.&nbsp;&nbsp; Whenever you had a problem Chuck was the first guy there to help&hellip; just a huge loss for everyone,&rdquo; he said.<\/p>\n<p>Breeden said his friend would not want his loved ones to grieve.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;He said if I die, don&rsquo;t you put me in a box, I want to be cremated and throw my ashes over the ocean and you have a big party.&nbsp; So, Chuck would want us to all be partying and celebrating his life.&rdquo; said Breeden.<\/p>\n<p>In an 11-minute Facebook Live video recorded shortly after the crash, a witness reported the boat was &#8220;spinning out of control&#8221; with no one inside.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I saw this yellow boat screaming [past me at] about 70 plus miles an hour, so me being a jet skier, I like to chase these <a href=\"http:\/\/raritaneng.com\/raritan-product-line\/marine-toilets\/phc\/\">fast boats<\/a>&nbsp;and jump the waves, but I couldn&#8217;t catch it no matter how fast I went,&#8221; witness Justin Armel said. &#8220;Next thing you know, I saw the boat go up in the air [and] come down.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Armel, 40, of Winchester, said he did not see the actual crash, just the moments before and after.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The people [in the boat] were having a great time as they sped by us,&#8221; he said. &#8220;I just thought it was going so fast [and] they hit a wake and flew out. Then the boat just started spinning out of control in circles.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Bowen&rsquo;s boys say their father&rsquo;s boat did not even reach speeds of 70 miles an hour.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;He grew up on the water, knew the lake very well knew how to drive a boat very well,&rdquo; said Breeden.<\/p>\n<p>Investigators said alcohol was involved in the incident and charges in this case were pending.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>via <a href=\"http:\/\/wtvr.com\/2017\/07\/03\/friend-of-lake-anna-boating-accident-victim-speaks-out\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">&lsquo;He sacrificed his own life&rsquo; says friend of Lake Anna boating accident victim<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Boat Head Dept: \u2018He sacrificed his own life\u2019 says friend of Lake Anna boating accident victim<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[82],"class_list":{"0":"post-13367","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-marine-toilets","7":"tag-boat-head"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.raritaneng.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13367","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.raritaneng.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.raritaneng.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.raritaneng.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.raritaneng.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13367"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.raritaneng.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13367\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.raritaneng.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13367"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.raritaneng.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13367"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.raritaneng.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13367"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}