The chairman of one of America's largest home-building companies is mourning the loss of two young sons following a collision involving a jet ski and a boat which local police have described as a "tragic accident."
Pulaski County, Kentucky, Coroner Clyde Strunk said Cole Fischer, aged 14, and Chase Fischer, 18, were on the jet ski when it crashed on Lake Cumberland on Friday afternoon, local media reported.
They were the sons of Greg Fischer, chairman of Fischer Homes, which in 2022 Builder magazine reported saw $1.2 billion in gross revenue the previous year.
Fischer Homes is one of the largest domestic housing construction companies in the U.S., with new communities across Georgia, Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky. Builder magazine reported that in 2021, it built 3,017 new homes, making it the 31st most prolific homebuilder in the U.S.
The Kentucky-based development company released a statement on Monday in which it identified the two teenagers as having died in the accident, saying the Fischer family was grieving their "tragic and profound loss."
"Our deepest condolences are with their parents, Greg and Amy Fischer, their sister, and their grandparents, Henry and Elaine Fischer," it continued.
"The Fischer Group has always been a company about family, and our team is grieving with and praying for the entire Fischer family. Please keep them in your thoughts and prayers. We ask that their privacy be respected during this unimaginable time."
Strunk told various local outlets that the teenagers had been involved in the collision sometime after noon, with authorities being called to the boat docks on the Cumberland River at Woodson Bend, a resort south of Somerset, Kentucky.
Both were confirmed as residents of Villa Hills, to the south of Cincinnati, in Northern Kentucky.
The Lexington Herald-Leader, referencing comments by the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources, reported that the incident had occurred in the South Fork of the Cumberland River, where the tributary meets the Lake Cumberland reservoir and north of the Woodson Bend jetty.
It also said that the boat that had collided with the jet ski took the boys to shore, where they were declared dead.
Strunk told the Stanford, Kentucky-based Interior Journal that those in the boat had also been injured in the collision, but had survived. He said that following a post-mortem, authorities did not believe drugs or alcohol had been a factor.
"It was just a tragic accident," he said.
Newsweek approached the Pulaski County coroner's office and the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources via email for confirmation and further comment on Tuesday.
According to officials who patrol the waterway, jet ski crashes are uncommon but they stressed that deadly collisions can occur between any forms of vessel. Dylan Norton, a U.S. Army Engineers Corps ranger, told WYMT: "There are accidents that happen in any capacity. Just not jet skis and boats, could be boats and boats, boats and the shoreline or underwater obstructions."
