He was being treated in King’s Daughters’ emergency room Sunday afternoon and was in stable condition, said Nadja Boone, a spokeswoman at the hospital.
Two of the injured workers were flown out of Madison’s King’s Daughters’ Hospital to University Hospital in Louisville, where 31-year-old Chris Cutshall was being treated for life-threatening injuries. He was listed in critical condition Sunday night, according to the Louisville Courier-Journal.
The second worker, 34-year-old Angela Greenwell of Louisville, suffered a broken femur and was listed in fair condition Sunday night, according to hospital and racing spokespeople.
The accident occurred around 4:30 p.m. when a racing boat driven by Brian Perkins, 26, of North Road, Wash., missed a buoy and was back-tracking at reduced speed to return to the race course, then collided with a 16-foot work barge that was operating as a rescue boat, racing officials said, the Kentucky newspaper reported.
All three rescue workers were ejected into the water and rescued by other rescue boats nearby, Miller said.
Perkins was not injured and will not be ticketed, but the accident remains under investigation, Miller said.
The accident happened during a qualifying heat race, the first of a final round of three heats. The rest of the heat races were canceled. But the finals were run as planned.
Don Cole, a Madison resident, said he was standing on the Madison side of the river when he witnessed the collision.
“He flat out hit the rescue boat,” Cole said. “Everybody around here (in the crowd) was sickened by it,” said Cole, who called the accident “the most disturbing thing I’ve ever witnessed.”