Lake of the Ozarks Boat Crash

About

Lake of the Ozarks Boat Crash refers to a viral video in which seven speedboat passengers are violently thrown about the deck after hitting a large wave at high speed. On YouTube, many remixed variations of the video have been created featuring electronic dance music tracks dubbed over the background audio.

Origin

On August 31st, 2012, the Lake TV YouTube channel uploaded a news segment containing footage of a boat crash at the Lake of the Ozarks in Missouri, where seven people were thrown back-and-forth across a boat’s deck after plowing into a wake at dangerously high speed (shown below). While all seven boaters were injured, five were taken to a hospital to be treated for “minor to moderate injuries.” In three years, the video gathered upwards of 4.5 million views and 1,100 comments. An extended video was later released, which features the boat crash at 2:17 (shown below, right).

Spread

On September 1st, 2012, The Daily Mail^[1] published an article about the incident. The same day, YouTuber ohhellmaybe reuploaded a slowed clip of the crash (shown below, left). Also on September 1st, YouTuber Tom Robinson uploaded the crash clip dubbed with the 2010 dubstep song “Scary Monsters & Nice Sprites” by Skrillex (shown below, right). Within three years, the videos gained over 3.5 million and 1.4 million views respectively.

On September 2nd, Off Shore Only Forums^[4] member DrReedJ replied to a thread about the video, where he claimed to have been one of the passengers on the boat and described various injuries the passengers received.

“Hey guys, I was a passenger in this boat during the accident. Yes, there are many cardinal rules broken. The most important one I feel is no life jackets worn. As crazy as it seems, we had jackets for each person but as the poker run began we realized no one else was wearing them….. How foolish we were. I have read so many nasty comments on YouTube and other sites I am in shock. My wife suffered 4 broken ribs, punctured lung and a broken foot. She has not left the house since getting home. She is in severe pain. The driver crushed his eye orbital and broke hus back at T8 ( he is a former F-2 racer with APBA). Another passenger who raced professionally for many years broke his pelvis in several places and is in a wheelchair. One of the other girls crushed her eye orbital also. The guy from lake tv fractured his hip and broke his wrist. My injuries were minor compared, busted my head open and damaged a rib or two. Everyone is black and blue. This was a very upsetting event for everyone involved. I have been around powerboats for many years and it only takes on unguarded minute to loose a life or permanently hurt people you love.”

On September 7th, the JukinVideo YouTube^[2] channel reposted footage of the crash. On the following day, YouTuber Rayzed Entertainment posted an edited version of the video mixed with the 1993 dance song “What is Love” by Haddaway (shown below, left). Also on September 8th, YouTuber Julian Zamora uploaded another Skrillex dubstep remix (shown below, right).

On February 28th, 2013, the Leisure Boating YouTube channel uploaded a clip dubbed with the 2012 trap song “Harlem Shake” (shown below, left). On April 23rd, 2014, YouTuber TDFWFail posted a version of the video edited with the 2013 trap song “Turn Down for What” by DJ Snake and Lil Jon (shown below right). The following day, Redditor johnny5k submitted the remix to the /r/videos^[3] subreddit. Over the next two years, the video received upwards of 7.7 million views and the Reddit post gained over 1.600 votes (85% upvoted).