With two children and six adults on board, a large SeaHunter boat smashed into a Lower Keys bridge in the early morning hours of July 8.
The crash injured at least seven of the eight people aboard.
“The seven people who were hospitalized were six adults and one child,” county spokeswoman Kristen Livengood told Keys Weekly before press time. “The child was airlifted along with two adults. The other four were taken (to local hospitals]. I’m not sure who was taken where.”
The accident, which shocked locals, turned into a lifesaving mission for Monroe County Fire Rescue. They made it to the scene within about 10 minutes and used ladders from another bridge to swoop down and remove the people, authorities said.
At about 1:30 a.m., the 35-foot SeaHunter boat hit the South Pine Channel Bridge off Big Pine Key.
The boat was “going at a high rate of speed” and began taking on water, Livengood told Keys Weekly the morning of the crash.
Monroe County Fire Rescue made it to the crash scene before the vessel started sinking, though.
Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officers and the Towboat US Big Pine/Cudjoe Key boat towing service also responded to the scene not long after the crash.
“We were able to get a boat alongside the vessel before it sank and transfer three of the severely injured to our boat and then transported them to Dolphin Marina, where (paramedics) treated and transferred all three to waiting helicopters and transported (them) to a Miami Hospital,” Towboat U.S. posted on Monday afternoon.
FWC is investigating.
The trip was a fishing charter with a local boat captain leading the way, according to sources with knowledge of the incident. And several locals have been vocal on Facebook saying that they know the people were out fishing at night for spawning snapper on a charter trip.
The boat crash with multiple injuries follows a boating hit-and-run fatality reported July 5 on the waters off the Lower Keys. A spearfisherman was struck and killed by a boat at 1:15 p.m. July 5 off MM 39, the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office said.
The 32-foot Contender involved was located later that day in Key Colony Beach after Keys law enforcement put the word out on social media.
But details have not been released by state officials, leaving unanswered questions including whether a required diver-down flag was present or if the boat driver even realized he had struck someone before driving away.
Marathon City Manager George Garrett, in a radio interview and phone call with Keys Weekly on the morning of July 10, said there are questions remaining about the victim’s distance from his own boat and whether a diver-down flag was properly displayed, but Garrett emphasized the reports were not final.
FWC spokeswoman Arielle Callender also told Keys Weekly the reports were not yet available.
“Will share as soon as (reports) are available,” she wrote in an email.
The discourse on social media about the Big Pine boat accident ranged from outrage over the time of night that children were out on the water to people asking everyone to pray for the injured people and have patience awaiting FWC’s reports.
Was alcohol involved? Why were children out so late? How fast was the boat going? Comments and questions blaming all sorts of factors filled the threads.
Others asked for peace and patience while waiting for official investigative reports to be finalized and released.
“People just need to keep their negative thoughts and comments to themselves before the facts are displayed,” one commenter wrote. “We are all humans and make our own decisions in life, yet don’t have a reason to judge each other.”
Another replied, “Very naive!”
The South Pine Channel Bridge, off Big Pine Key, is known as a relatively wide passage. Photos of the damaged boat stunned locals.
Capt. David Dipre, a longtime Keys-based FWC officer, urged people to focus on safety regulations and equipment – and the fact that they can work.
“Life jackets,” Dipre told Keys Weekly. “Make sure those red and green lights are on.”
Dipre is not an investigator, but supervises FWC officers.
Initially, the county reported that seven people were on board, including one child. A second child, age 17, was also on the SeaHunter at the time, sources with knowledge of the trip told Keys Weekly. The other boy is 12 years old.
