On July 17, 2011 I Officer with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission was on patrol with Officer.  At approx. 3:41 PM I received a call from St Lucie County Sherrifs Deputy advising me of a boating accident offshore of Ft Pierce.  He told me that the involved parties were at the U.S. Coast Guard Station Ft. Pierce and that one had possible back injuries.  We started heading went to the Station on our Patrol Vessel and as we approached the South Causeway in Ft. Pierce we saw an ambulance crossing the causeway.  When we arrived at the station we were told that one of the occupants had indeed been transported to Lawnwood regional Medical Center in Ft Pierce.  

The vessel operator told us that he was also the victim’s father.  He advised us that they were off shore in his 15'-3" Bombardier jet boat with two female occupants  and his son.  He stated that a wave "disappeared" beneath them and that they came down hard.  The vessel is configured so that three people face forward and one seat faces the rear. The victim was in the rear facing seat. According to the occupants statements, when the vessel came down and hit the water victim screamed out in pain. They tried to wave down a Coast Guard vessel but were unsuccessful.  They were spotted by a Sherrifs patrol boat and escorted  to the Coast Guard Station because the Deputies did not want to try to move him from one vessel to another because of the back injury.  St Lucie County Rescue 2 transported victim from the station to Lawnwood.  When Officer got to the hospital We took statements from all the occupants of the vessel and talked to victim about what had happened.  He said that the waves were "really big" and that they dropped off one causing him to leave his seat and when they hit, he felt a lot of pain.   While we were there the Doctor came in from X-ray and told us that he had a Compression Fracture off the T-Spine and that he would be admitted.

Taking into consideration the small size of the vessel and the sea conditions we determined that operator was careless in operating the vessel.  I issued him a citation for Careless Operation of a vessel. 
End of Report.; 

FORT PIERCE                   