On 5-5-12, I responded to a boating accident near Indiantown, FL. A barge, US Coast Guard documentation  number 1229258 was heading west in the St. Lucie Canal. The vessel was a self powered barge with another barge attached to the front of it and one more being hip towed on the front port side. 

The barge entered the fender system of the CSX Transportation Bridge at about 1630. As it passed through, The front of the barge hit the fender system and splintered one of the pilings on the fender system pushing it west. The vessel got hung up and reversed pulling part of the fender system back with it. This shifted the whalers that sit on top of the pilings back to the east. Two of the whalers were completely pushed off the piling and the catwalk was shifted back as well. 

At about 1700 the vessel cleared the fender system and continued heading west. The operator of the vessel gave the bridge tender his information, some of which was wrong, and never notified law enforcement.

I tried to contact the barge by the cell number given and it was an incorrect number. I had the US Coast Guard try to hail the barge on the VHS and they received no response. At about 2100, I located the barge near Port Mayaca.

Myself and the US Coast Guard boarded the vessel and determination was made that the vessel was not commercial and because of this the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission would work the boating accident.

INDIANTOWN                    