From the Bracebridge OPP
The Bracebridge OPP is investigating a boating collision that occurred on Skeleton Lake in Muskoka Lakes Township that sent one person to hospital with life-threatening injuries.
On July 19, 2025, just before 5:00 p.m. Bracebridge OPP officers along with Muskoka EMS and Muskoka Lakes Fire Department, received several emergency calls from members of the public reporting that there had been a boating collision on Skeleton Lake in Muskoka Lakes Township near Skeleton Lake Road 5. Callers reported that a boat had collided with a swimmer and people on shore had managed to bring the victim out of the water. First responders were on scene quickly and the victim, a 22-year-old Georgina man, was rushed to hospital and further transported by air to a Toronto area hospital with life-threatening injuries.
Police located the operator of the vessel and have arrested and charged 39-year-old Richard MOORE of Niagara Falls, ON with the following:
- Impaired Operation Causing Bodily Harm
- Failure/Refusal to Comply with Demand (breath) – Bodily Harm
- Fail to Stop at Accident Resulting in Bodily Harm
- Failure to Comply with Release Order
He was held in custody and will appear for a bail hearing in the Ontario Court of Justice in Bracebridge on Sunday, July 20, 2025.
The investigation is ongoing and police are asking anyone with information of any kind, including footage from home surveillance systems, to call Bracebridge OPP at 1-888-310-1122. You may also report anonymously to Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477 or online at www.crimestopperssdm.com.
Impaired driving continues to be a significant factor affecting the safety of Muskoka roads. If you suspect someone is driving a vehicle of any kind while impaired, please call 9-1-1. For more information on impaired driving, please visit https://www.ontario.ca/page/impaired-driving.
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How many times have we been told that we are a ‘nation of laws’? And that’s as it should be, but more and more it seems to coming with a wormy undercurrent of loopholes. We have a person awaiting judgement on the destruction of one life while intoxicated. Free to drive a different vehicle and destroy another life, again under the influence.
We may be able to argue the exact conditions of each assault, but there seems to be little argument with the results. Don’t tell me the man is basically a good person. With one tragedy as example, but still perfectly content to do much the same thing again. Someone else’s life judged of less value than a skin full of booze.
It’s reported here that the persons cottage is for sale now. And the speed with which the law works means that most of what the culprit owns will be placed where a law suit will be unable to touch it.
There is no reason for this culprit to be running free. The victims certainly aren’t. Where is the justice in all this? What’s happening to our ‘laws’? Is it in the interpretation or the application?
Either way, something is seriously wrong. In my opinion.
And now realtor.ca showing the guy’s cottage up for sale this morning showing the boat that hit the swimmer MLS # X12296863
Is Kevin O’Leary back on the water??
Person charged in this incident is currently awaiting sentencing after being convicted of a fatal hit and run of an 84-year-old cyclist in Niagara in October 2023.