On 6/3/2023 at approximately 3:15pm, I received a call from Manatee County Sheriff’s Office (MCSO) Deputy, stating there had been a boat accident involving two personal watercraft (PWC) near Palma Sola Causeway in Manatee County.  Deputy stated there were no reported injuries and he believed the two PWCs involved were a white PWC and a yellow PWC.  Upon further investigation, only one PWC and operator could be identified (white PWC).  The second PWC (striking vessel) left the scene of the accident and could not be identified.
The owner of the PWC livery met me at his livery location on Palma Sola Causeway.  He informed me that the operator of his vessel (White/Black PWC), OP2 returned the PWC that he had been renting and told him he’d been involved in an accident with another PWC.  OP2 was still on-scene when I arrived and admitted to operating the PWC that was struck by another PWC.  OP2 provided very little information to allow me to identify the other PWC or operator involved.  When asked what color the other PWC was, he initially failed to answer.  A female subject who was with him then stepped up and said it was yellow.    OP2 informed me that he was just inside of the Slow Speed Area, just about to pick up speed as he was about to exit the area, when a PWC that had been doing “donuts” in the Slow Speed Area struck his PWC heading in an east to west direction.  When asked for a description of the operator, he again provided no identifiable information.  I asked if the operator was male or female, white, black, Asian, Hispanic? And OP2 stated he didn’t know.  MANAGER then informed me that he believed the other PWC involved was the yellow PWC which was parked near the Watersports Tent just east of our location. While inspecting the PWC, damage was observed to the port (left) rear (stern) of the vessel.  A black guard had been ripped off and an area of fiberglass approximately 8” x 8” under the guard was completely crushed and compromised the integrity of the hull.  Pictures were taken of the damage and have been included in this report.
I made my way over to the Watersports location and met with the manager on-duty.  A yellow PWC was still parked in the water by their tent.  Manager informed me that the yellow PWC had been rented out earlier, but it was no longer operational.  She informed me that the operational issues were of a mechanical nature and not caused by any kind of accident.  I inspected the vessel while in the water and was unable to identify any indication that it had been involved in an accident with another vessel.  MANAGER identified the operator of the vessel prior to its mechanical issue, and I interviewed the operator briefly.  The operator stated the vessel stopped working and wasn’t involved in any kind of accident.  Again, the operator was less than forthcoming with any kind of information on what he had been doing prior to the vessel’s mechanical failure, but without any evidence indicating that it had been involved in the accident, the subject was allowed to rejoin his party.  I inspected the yellow PWC further once it was placed on its trailer, and again found no evidence that could prove it had been involved in the accident.  MANAGER informed me that there was another yellow PWC being operated by a private owner, which had been removed from the water prior to my arrival on-scene.  She suspected this was the striking vessel which had been involved in the accident.  No other information was available on the owner/operator of this vessel.  She believed the owner lived in a nearby neighborhood and upon leaving the scene, I patrolled the neighborhood without any success finding a vessel fitting the description.

Palma Sola Bay
BRADENTON                     