Author Topic: Runaway boat crashes into jetty (Stuart, FL) (Read 7041 times)

dreamsfloatjoe · « **on:** September 08, 2009, 04:24:24 PM »

STUART, FL -- Jeremy Glass was enjoying the holiday weekend on the water with friends when he spotted a small boat tearing through the St. Lucie Inlet at 30 mph with no one at the wheel.

"The boat was headed right toward us so it was definitely a moment of panic," he recalls.

Martin County Sheriff's deputies say three people were riding on that 23 foot Contender when a large swell knocked them overboard. The boat kept going.

Jeremy’s father watched it happen. He said another boat fished the three people out of the water, so he turned his attention to the runaway boat.

"We decided to follow the boat make sure it didn’t run over anybody," said Virgil Glass.

The shoreline was packed with recreational boaters and fishermen. The boat could have hit anything or anyone.

"There were people on the north side of the rocks, people on the south side of the rocks fishing and they had absolutely no clue," said Jeremy.

Jeremy started shooting video of the chase, which he later posted on YouTube.

In the video, you can see the runaway boat veers 180 degrees and heads right for a rocky jetty along the inlet. The boat crashes into the rocks and flies 3 to 4 feet in the air before landing on the other side of the jetty.

Jeremy and his friends drove to the other side of the jetty, then jumped in the water to turn off the motors on the runaway boat.

"It had some holes in it and the motor was smoking pretty bad," said Virgil Glass.

Save one small injury, deputies say the three people ejected from that boat were OK, but add they could have avoided the whole episode if the captain had worn a lanyard on his wrist, tied to the kill switch on the boat.

"It was a freak accident but it’s good it played out like it did," said Jeremy Glass.

Reference: WPTV News Article