RedactedNarrative: SYNOPSIS 
  On May 5, 2015, at approximately 1545 hours, a single vessel accident occurred in the Intra-Coastal Waterway near marker 60 in the City of Edgewater, in Volusia County Florida. The accident involved an open motorboat with one person on board. The vessel was traveling in an unknown direction when the operator left the vessel for an unknown reason. The vessel continued running at a high rate of speed circling to the right. The victim was struck by the vessel at least two times, he was pronounced dead at the scene. 
  
  VESSEL DESCRIPTIONS 
  Vessel one (V-1) is a 2006, 16 foot Carolina Skiff, model J-16, with a fiberglass hull, white in color. V-1 has Florida registration number FL 0102 NC and hull identification number (HIN) EKHG3575L506. It is powered by a 50 horsepower Evinrude E-tec outboard. 
  
  OPERATOR INJURIES 
  V-1 operator sustained severe trauma to back of the head and front of the groin area. The Medical Examiner’s preliminary findings indicate the cause of death as “drowning” and the manner of death as “accident”. 
  
  INTERVIEWS AND STATEMENTS 
  There was no witness to the fall overboard. One witness saw the victim attempt to stay away from the runaway vessel. There were no other vessels in the area at the time of the accident. The water was calm with a light breeze. 
  
  INSPECTIONS 
  I inspected the accident location and found that the vessel had crashed into a dock at its final resting place. Damage patterns suggest that the vessel had continued in a sharp starboard turn, at a high rate of speed until impacting with the dock, after the operator was overboard. I observed that the key was in the on position and the throttle was fully open. The first Officer on scene stated that the vessel was still running upon his arrival, then shut down on its own. The initial point of impact on V-1 was on the port bow. Damage was noted along the entire port side including a large hole through the hull and damage to the engine cowling. The vessel was recovered and removed from the water. I observed propeller damage in the form of a broken edge of one flute. There is no kill switch mechanism on V-1. The capacity plate indicates that the vessel is overpowered, citing a maximum horsepower rating of 40. 
  
  CRASH 
  V-1 operator left the vessel for an unknown reason, there was no kill switch mechanism on the controls, V-1 continued at full throttle and entered a hard starboard turn. The victim attempted to dive under V-1 as it circled. V-1 struck the victim at least two times. The victim drowned. V-1 continued circling until it eventually crashed into a dock and got stuck there until the engine quit running. 
  
  CONCLUSION 
  Based on information and evidence gathered to date, the following conclusions have been made: The cause of this crash is unknown. The operator most likely fell out of V-1 by accident. This vessel contains a channel above the deck through which the controls pass. The channel is located between the operators’ feet and extends upward from the deck approximately 1.5 inches. This presents a tripping hazard to the standing operator and may have caused the fall overboard. An installed and used kill switch would most likely have prevented this accident from being fatal. There were numerous beer cans observed on V-1, at the time of this writing, toxicology results were not available. It is unknown if alcohol use played any role in this accident. 
  
  End of report