1 dead and multiple injuries reported following boat hit-and-run near Florida bridge

WFTS

By Frances Lin

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    CLEARWATER, Florida (WFTS) — The City of Clearwater said one person has died and multiple injuries have been reported following a boat crash near the Memorial Causeway bridge.

ABC Action News spoke with Clearwater Mayor Bruce Rector, who said the Clearwater Ferry was in a collision with a privately owned boat. The ferry can carry 50 people.

“We believe the boat responsible for hitting the ferry left the scene immediately and we believe our law enforcement partners are at another location with that boat right now, but we are still asking anybody who has information anyone that witnessed anything anyone that may have any video to contact us,” said Rob Shaw with the City of Clearwater.

According to Shaw, 45 people were on board the ferry at the time of the crash, including two crew members. Of the injuries, six were listed as trauma alerts. Of those six, two were flown to Baycare Health with various minor injuries.

A passenger, Brenda Alvarez, who is 31 weeks pregnant, told ABC Action News, “We are actually going to go to the hospital right now to get checked because I’m a little worried I haven’t felt the baby move. It’s very scary. I fell between two seats, and my whole body hurts right now. We just wanted to get to our cars and get home. You never expect anything to happen. We can’t understand how fast they were going, like how that was even logically possible that they hit and were able to get off like that. We have a 3-year-old and 1-year-old with us, and I’m pregnant, and I don’t know, it’s horrible. It shattered the whole back of the boat, left a huge dent.”

Officials said Clearwater Police and Clearwater Fire and Rescue were on scene following a call at 8:43 p.m. It was the end of the 17-day Sugar Sand Festival tonight, so a lot of people were taking the ferry back and forth for the festival.

Officials said that they believe everyone has been accounted for and no one was reported missing. The Coast Guard and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission will be handling the crash investigation.

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