CLEARWATER, Fla. — The City of Clearwater says one person has died and multiple injuries have been reported following a boat crash near the Memorial Causeway bridge.
ABC Action News spoke with the mayor of Clearwater, Bruce Rector, who says 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 and i fell between two seats and my whole body hurts right now. We just wanted to get to our cars and get home. We never, 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 three-year-old and one-year-old with us, and I'm pregnant,t and I don't know, it's horrible. It shattered, it shattered the whole back of the boat, left a huge dent."
Shaw sent us this video of the scene:
Officials say 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 say they believe everyone has been accounted for, and nobody was reported missing. The Coast Guard and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission will be handling the crash investigation.
We are working to find out more about this incident. This is an ongoing story, and any new information will be updated in this article as it becomes available.
"I felt like it was really strong-arm robbery."
Drivers hit with school bus camera fines in Polk County are frustrated that they must first pay more before appealing their ticket.
