On 05/26/2013, i, fwc inv was dispatched to a boating accident with injuries located behind pineapple willies restaurant in panama city beach, florida., this is on the gulf of mexico.

On my arrival i made contact with a panama city beach police officer. He told me bay ems had already left the scene with a male victim that was suffering from a compound fracture of the right ankle (actual injury was above ankle).

The pd officer took me to the beach where a jet ski rental business was set up. I made contact with one of the occupents of one of the involved pwc's. The subject, said the two pwc's struck at an almost head on angle, injuring the operator of one of them. It is noted here that there was a great bit of difficulty communicating with any of the involved subjects due to two of them being brazillian and two of them being cuban with very little english spoken.

The operator of v-1 had gone to his condo room and retreived his georgia id. I attempted to interview him and was able to determine he had struck v-2 shortly after the two skis had left the beach. V-1 had made a turn to port and as it approached v-2, it had struck v-2 on the starboard side in what appeared to be an up and over in a forward to aft direction.

Damage to v-1 was none visible and damage to v-2 was a broken plastic housing that goes around the steering yoke, a scuff/ding on the starboard railing, outboard of the footwell, approx the size of my hand. The grab rail that is attached to the rear of the seat was also broken. The jet ski vendor,placed the damage at $1500.

I then went to gulf coast hospital in panama city where i made contact with the operator of v-2 who told me it was an accident and he didn't want his friends blamed. I was able to determine that v-2 had stopped in the water after passing the idle speed bouys. V-1 had turned and was coming over to talk with v-2. The operator of v-1 had no experience operating a pwc and while attempting to pull up to v-2, had accelerated the throttle, causing v-1 to strike v-2. Operator2 was ejected from the pwc and was retreived by his freind and returned to shore. Operator2 told me his injuries were his bone sticking out on his right leg above the ankle, some scrapes and lacerations on his right leg and knee and that the right side of his buttocks were sore. The open fracture was covered with what appeared to be some 2 x 2 gauze when i saw the injury in the er. 

I issued the operator of v-1, a ubc for violation of fs 327.33(2), careless operation, a non-criminal infraction.;
PANAMA CITY BEACH