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Lake Murray residents call for boating safety measures

Lake Murray residents say more needs to be done to prevent boating accidents.

CHAPIN, S.C. — Lake Murray residents say more needs to be done to prevent boating accidents after two accidents on the lake over Memorial Day weekend left eight people injured. 

Tom Hall's lakeside property has been in his family since 1957, he says. "Used to be you have 10-20 boats. Now, you have hundreds and thousands of boats."

Hall says after years spent boating on the lake, it's become a lot busier, "than it used to be when I was a kid," he said.

"The locals that live around here call it "malfunction junction" because of two the marinas and the dams ... people are running back and forth."

RELATED: Five injured in boat crash on Lake Murray Friday night

His wife, Barbara Hall, says she witnessed the aftermath of the Friday night crash, causing which sent five people were sent to the hospital and one of the two boats sank. 

"We had just gone to bed and I heard one siren and I thought it was no big deal, but then I heard multiple sirens and then the ambulance and the battalion chief ... I knew something bad had happened," said Barbara Hall.

RELATED: "Oh my God it's happening to another family" Witness to crash lost family in boating accident

According to residents, the Friday night accident happened between Suzie Ebert Island and the Coast Guard post. South Carolina DNR says the sunken boat has not been recovered, but will be next week.

"They will have to bring in a barge, with a crane on it, and then they'll have to have divers go down and cable the boat and bring it to the surface," said Dan Drake with the Lake Murray Power Squadron, a nonprofit which works to promote boating safety

"Anybody that is operating a boat should be required to take at least a basic safety class on rules of the lake and the ways you operate the boat."

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