RedactedNarrative: On October 22, 2022, at approximately 1330 hours, local Miami-Dade County dispatch received a call about a vessel that had struck a channel marker in Biscayne Bay and that one person had been ejected. This person was reported to be face down and unconscious. 
  We were notified of the accident at approximately 1450 hours when Jackson Memorial Hospital South contacted FWC dispatch requesting a case number regarding a vessel accident that resulted in one person transported to their facility by Miami-Dade Fire Rescue 74. 
  At approximately 1500 hours, I Florida Fish and Wildlife (FWC) Officer, was dispatched to Jackson South Hospital to interview the victim and asses her injury status. 
  Upon arrival to the hospital at approximately 1530 hours, I was informed that the identity of the victim by hospital staff was a twenty-six (26) year old female by the name of VICTIM, and was in critical but stable condition.  VICTIM had sustained a laceration to the head, an orbital fracture, and a small brain bleed due to the accident. 
  A short time after checking on VICTIM’s status, I encountered the other seven passengers on board the vessel in the lobby of the hospital and they provided me a sworn written statement of the events that led up to the vessel accident that day. The statements are attached to this report. 
  As I was gathering information about of the accident from the passengers of the vessel, FWC were dispatched to the residence of the captain/operator. While there, Lt. interviewed OP1, took a sworn written statement and took photographic evidence of the damage to the vessel. The vessel was identified as a white 27’ 2000 Bayliner Marine cuddy cabin. The vessel was registered to OP1’s wife and resides with him. 
  OP1 wrote on his statement that he was engaged in a charter at the time of the accident. Passenger had paid him a deposit of $300 and the agreement was $1000 for the day which included his services as Captain. The information provided by passenger and OP1 about the charter was forwarded to United States Coast Guard Sector Miami investigators for review. 
  (Refer to diagram provided for position and location of all passengers on board).
  As he was navigating from Boca Chita to the sandbar within the Sands Key Cannel, he noticed something in the water and attempted to avoid it by steering to starboard. The maneuver caused him to collide with Sand’s Key Day Beacon Four (#4) located at (N25.31.207/W080.11.615) in Biscayne Bay. He also wrote that 2 females (VICTIM and OCCUPANT) were ejected from the vessel due to the allision and two of the passengers jumped in the water to rescue them. He quickly navigated back to them and headed straight to Black Point Boat Ramp, where EMS was already waiting. Upon interviewing them, none of the passengers corroborated or remembered seeing the obstacle in the water.  
  While gathering information provided in statements from the passengers on board, I discovered that the operator hit the channel marker with the starboard (right) side of his vessel (confirmed by the photographic evidence taken by Lt., causing VICTIM to be ejected from the vessel and end up in the water face-down.  OCCUPANT was also ejected from the vessel and swam to VICTIM’s location in the water to aid.  
  OP1 was issued a uniform boating citation for violation of USCG Navigational Rule (#5) improper lookout stating “ Every vessel shall at all times maintain a proper look-
  