UPDATED: Boat crashes in Newport; one injured

A 44-foot vessel ran into the shoreline and injured one person Saturday afternoon in Newport Beach, in what responders called the result of the boat’s crew failing to pay attention to its surroundings.

According to officials from the Newport Beach Fire Department and the Orange County Sheriff’s Harbor Patrol, lifeguards spotted a boat traveling toward the shoreline near 46th Street at around 12:15 p.m. The lifeguards positioned themselves alongside the boat and tried to warn its operator to change course, but the operator, identified by the Harbor Patrol as 36-year-old Matthew Hughes of Fontana, appeared asleep or inattentive.

“They did their best to warn the person, but they couldn’t get him to comply,” said Fire Department spokeswoman Jennifer Schulz.

The vessel then struck a small jetty near 44th Street, creating a 3-foot hole in its side. One passenger on the boat, 27-year-old Jordan Waller of Sunland, suffered a laceration to the face and several missing teeth, and was transported to Western Medical Center in Santa Ana. Hughes and the other two passengers were treated at the scene, and a salvage company was summoned to pull the boat out of the water.

Sgt. Dave Ginther of the Harbor Patrol said Hughes claimed to have been awake and talking to another passenger when the boat struck the jetty, but Schulz said lifeguards had described him as slumped back in the captain’s seat.

In either case, Ginther said, the law mandated that boat operators had a steady lookout while on the water.

“The rules are that you have to have a proper lookout, whether it’s yourself or someone else,” he said.