Teen drowns in Georgia lake when game goes wrong

CARTERSVILLE, Ga. - A teenager drowned just hours after graduating high school when he was tied to a shopping cart and pushed into a lake as part of a game with friends, officials said.

Chance Werner, 18, of Cartersville died at Lake Allatoona about 35 miles northwest of Atlanta, Georgia Department of Natural Resources spokeswoman Melissa Cummings said. His body was found early Sunday morning in about 30 feet of water and he was still tied to the cart.

Cummings said that in the game Saturday night, participants sat in a shopping cart that was tied to a pole.

Others pushed the cart to the end of the dock so that the person sitting in it would be flung into the water. Cummings said that when Werner's turn came, the cart was tied to the teen instead of a pole. The weight of the cart pulled him under.

Werner was the father of an 8-month-old baby boy. He took online classes to complete his high school diploma and worked five days a week to support his son, his father told CBS affiliate WGCL.

"He was a big boy, had a big heart," Fred Werner said.

Authorities were still investigating but the incident but did not suggest it was anything other than a tragic accident.

Cummings told the Atlanta Journal Constitution that the game was inherently dangerous.

"We don't want people playing games with water like this," Cummings said. "It's an accident waiting to happen -- kids playing with ropes and heavy objects."

"We've all been in the same situation, and hopefully now this will be an eye-opener," Angel Ferguson, a swimmer at Lake Altoona, told WGCL.