Father and son killed when watercraft crashes into seawall in Florida Keys, deputies say
A man and his 9-year-old son were killed when the speeding personal watercraft the father was operating hit a concrete seawall in a Florida Keys canal Tuesday night, according to the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office.
The 47-year-old Miami-Dade County man, whom police have not identified, was driving the vessel at full speed in the residential canal, which is a no-wake zone where no boat should be operating at more than idle speed, Sheriff Rick Ramsay told the Miami Herald.
“He hit head on. There was no slowing down,” Ramsay said.
The crash happened shortly before 7 p.m. around 14th Street in the Middle Keys city of Marathon near the popular Castaways Waterfront Restaurant and Sushi Bar, the sheriff’s office said.
The vessel hit the seawall so hard that the man was ejected about 20 feet onto land, Ramsay said. The boy, who was riding with his father on the 2018 Yamaha, was thrown into the water. People who witnessed the tragedy immediately jumped into the water to try to save the child, Ramsay said.
The sheriff’s office was the first on scene, followed by officers with Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, Ramsay said. Monroe County Fire Rescue paramedics declared the man dead at the scene.
They loaded the boy onto the county’s Trauma Star helicopter ambulance to be flown to Nicklaus Children’s Hospital in Miami. En route, however, the child went into cardiac arrest and the helicopter’s crew landed at Baptist Health Mariners Hospital in the Upper Keys area of Tavernier, Ramsay said.
The boy died there.
“It’s sad. Sad,” Ramsay said.
The sheriff’s office released a photo of the wreckage to the Herald, showing the badly damaged vessel floating against a seawall. A child’s Croc rubber shoe can be seen on the left footrest of the personal watercraft.
The crash is being investigated by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
“This is an active investigation; no further information is currently available,” FWC spokeswoman Arielle Callender said in a statement Wednesday morning. “Our thoughts are with the family and friends of the victims during this difficult time.”
