Responded to a boating accident involving two vessel.  One vessel struck another vessel's trolling motor.  The location of the accident occurred at Bayside Marina off of Big Daddy Drive in Panama City Beach.  No injuries and only damage to vessels.  See detailed narrative.

While talking with RP, the striking vessel (V01) arrived back on-scene.  The owner/operator of V01 was identified as OP1.  V01 was identified by FL registration numbers as a 2012 26' Avalon & Tahoe pontoon vessel that was red/maroon in color with a 150 hp motor.  I asked OP1 what happened and he advised that he was backing out of the slip and was about to hit a large yacht.  He put the throttle forward to try to avoid hitting the yacht and hit V02.  V01 had damage to the port side aluminum.  You can see where the skeg of the trolling motor punctured and tore the aluminum.  I asked OP1 why he didn't remain on-scene and he said that he was advised that everything was okay and that dock personnel told him it was okay to leave.

Bayside Marina Canal
PANAMA CITY BEACH             