Police who boarded unmanned Sarasota boat stress importance of using engine cut-off switches
The Brief
Sarasota police chased down and boarded an out-of-control unmanned boat Monday.
The boat's operator was not utilizing the boat's emergency engine cut-off switch, according to police.
Police are using Monday's incident as a teaching opportunity to stress the importance of using engine cut-off switches.
SARASOTA, Fla. - The officers in Sarasota who chased down and boarded an unmanned, out-of-control boat on Monday are using it to show why emergency engine cut-off switches are so important.
The officers were able to turn off the engine before a possible disaster. A large wake threw the vessel's operator overboard as the boat was traveling about 40 mph.
"There were three vessels that departed from Marina Jack," said Officer Ron Dixon, a captain with the Sarasota Police Department's Marine Patrol. "They were headed back to their home port. The operator that was on the smaller boat that got thrown off was behind a larger boat that had cut in front of him. While he was navigating that wake, he maybe had turned a little too hard and was actually thrown off of the vessel."
What they're saying
"Obviously, he was a little dazed by that. When he got his wits about him, he noticed that the boat was actually circling towards him, and according to him, passed within five feet of him," said Dixon.
PREVIOUS: Florida officer leaps onto runaway boat after man thrown overboard
The operator of the 26-foot Everglades vessel broke two fingers in his left hand from the impact with the water.
According to Sarasota police, he wasn't wearing a life jacket or utilizing the emergency engine cut-off switch.
"He was very apologetic. He was very happy that he was alive and uninjured, just, you know, just his left hand," Dixon said. "These emergency cut-off switches are so important. If he would have been wearing one, none of this would have happened."
If a vessel operator falls overboard, an emergency cut-off switch immediately turns the engine off.
According to Dixon, wireless and Bluetooth cut-off switches are also available.
Timeline
The incident happened in the middle of the Intracoastal Waterway north of the Ringling Museum.
Dixon said he was on scene in about five minutes, and his first priority was to keep all other boaters away from the area.
He said no one realized initially that the boat was unmanned.
"That vessel was traveling 40 miles per hour. By itself, it could have T-boned any of the many vessels that were transiting through the area," Dixon said. "It was a very, very dangerous situation there in the beginning."
He called for backup, which included Lieutenant Bruce King.
READ: Clearwater Ferry crash: Jannus Live owner's attorney addresses 'misinformation' as investigation unfolds
The Sarasota Police Marine Unit, the Coast Guard, the Sarasota County Sheriff's Office, Venice Police Department and SeaTow worked together to try several times to slow the vessel's motor with towlines. Those attempts were unsuccessful.
Then, SeaTow deployed a plasma towline that slightly slowed the vessel.
"That little bit was enough to say let's try it again [hopping aboard the boat]," King said.
King said his gut told him the first attempt wasn't right before that.
"The boat was doing circles. It was not doing a perfect circle. So, it was migrating kind of in a northeast direction," King said, describing the second attempt. "It would have eventually hit somebody or someone. So, we took our shot, and I wouldn't have done it with anybody else but Ron Dixon or Michael Skinner. Our two boat captains are very skilled."
Dixon maneuvered close enough to the vessel for King to hop on board and shut it off.
"I calculated it. Ron had it perfectly set up. Mike was holding me. I took the jump, and it wasn't until afterward that, you know, you get the adrenaline dump and say, 'Wow, that was pretty neat," King said.
"We had to do something because this boat was going to hit somebody or someone at some point," King said.
"This happens a lot, too much, and unfortunately for local and state agencies, we are unable to enforce when they're not wearing it [the cut-off switch]," Dixon said. "That's a federal law. Coast Guard can write them [up], but us being out there and seeing it all the time, we educate, and that's about all we can do."
The federal law requires operators of recreational boats under 26 feet long to use an engine cut-off switch.
Prior Incidents
Dixon also responded to a similar incident in 2020 that tragically took the life of 10-year-old Ethan Isaacs.
He was out with Sarasota Youth Sailing when, the FWC said, his instructor fell off his boat and wasn't wearing an emergency cut-off switch. That boat ran into Ethan and killed him.
"He was in the sixth grade and a really smart, joyful kid, just full of life and wanted to be a geologist one day," said Mindy Isaacs, Ethan's mom.
"It's really just not worth the risk of losing a child. I mean, that day that Ethan was on the water, there were 16 other kids on the water in the area. I don't think people really realize often, too, the danger of a propeller," said Mindy Isaacs.
READ: Family of Clearwater Ferry crash victim mourns loss as investigation continues: 'We need justice'
"I mean, my dad described it like a saw in the water, and it's lurking under the water. It's not something that you always see when you're out on the water, and you're in the boat, but to really understand that when that boat becomes, you know, unmanned, no one is controlling it, and you have something similar to a saw in the water, that the damage, potential damage that it could cause," said Mindy Isaacs.
Ethan's Law went into effect in 2022 and mandates that boating instructors and coaches on vessels 26 feet or smaller must wear an engine cut-off switch in Florida.
His parents say an engine cut-off switch should be a requirement for all boat operators.
"It's very upsetting," said Greg Isaacs, Ethan's dad, about Monday's incident. "It's sort of triggering when that happens. The engine cut-off switch should be like your seatbelt. You should automatically put it on every time you start the engine on a boat. It really could save your life, and as we saw yesterday, a lot of the first responders ended up risking their lives to bring the boat into control."
"Ethan, we know, would have made a difference in the world, just given, you know, his intellect and who he was as a person, and he would be someone that would consider other people's safety," said Mindy Isaacs. "So, it is really sad to think that, you know, this had to happen when it could have been prevented."
Big picture view
Officers who responded to Monday's incident said they had just gone to a training session for this type of maneuver two weeks ago.
They said if you see an unmanned boat out of control, get out of the area, warn others and call 911.
CLICK HERE:>>>Follow FOX 13 on YouTube
The Source
FOX 13's Kailey Tracy collected the information in this story.
WATCH FOX 13 NEWS:
STAY CONNECTED WITH FOX 13 TAMPA:
Download the FOX Local app for your smart TV
Download FOX Local mobile app: Apple | Android
Download the FOX 13 News app for breaking news alerts, latest headlines
Download the SkyTower Radar app
Sign up for FOX 13's daily newsletter
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
16 hours ago
- Yahoo
Trump Is Expanding His Thuggish War on Union Leaders
The arrest and violent manhandling of David Huerta, the president of the Service Employees International Union of California, or SEIU, suggests that Donald Trump, that proud tribune of the working class, is targeting union leaders for arrest. Huerta wasn't the first. In March, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested Alfredo 'Lelo' Juarez Zeferino, a labor organizer; founder of Familias Unidas por la Justicia, a farmworkers' union in Bellingham, Washington; and former member of that city's now-defunct Immigration Advisory Board. As Kate Aronoff reported in The New Republic at the time of Zeferino's arrest, he was instrumental in securing state protections against excessive heat exposure. Zeferino is now being detained without bail. Labor unions in Washington state are infuriated by Zeferino's detention, and also by ICE's February arrest of Lewelyn Dixon (imprisoned for three months and then released), a lab technician at the University of Washington and, according to Local 925 of the Service Employees International Union, a 'dedicated' member of that union. Dixon was born in the Philippines but for half a century has been a legal permanent resident. Then there was Maximo Londonio, a forklift driver in Lacey, Washington, and a member of Local 695 of the Machinists. Londonio, who was also born in the Philippines, is, like Dixon, a legal permanent resident, but he's been an ICE detainee since mid-May. In Zeferino's case, ICE can claim he ignored a 2018 immigration removal order (his lawyer says Zeferino never heard about it). In Dixon's and Londonio's cases, ICE can claim they committed (nonviolent) criminal offenses—Dixon embezzled; it's not clear what Londonio did—but that was more than 20 years ago, and the government long ago prosecuted and punished them both. Huerta is different. He was born and raised in the United States, and his only offense appears to be observing and protesting how ICE treated members of his union during an immigration raid in Los Angeles. Clearly the Trump administration wants to make an example of him. But an example for whom? ICE arrests are typically intended to intimidate immigrants and prospective immigrants. But in this case (and probably Zeferino's too), ICE looks like it's trying to drive a wedge between undocumented immigrants and the labor movement. It's a bit late for that. Before the 1980s, labor might have been receptive because it tended to oppose immigration, believing undocumented and even legal immigrants cost native-born Americans jobs or lowered their wages. Cesar Chavez, a more complex figure than is generally acknowledged, called undocumented immigrants traveling north from Mexico 'wetbacks.' Chavez created a private security patrol to keep them out and bribed Mexican police to look the other way when his thuggish enforcers (nicknamed cesarchavezistas) roughed somebody up. Richard Strout, the liberal author of The New Republic's 'TRB From Washington' column from 1943 to 1983 (I followed him, in 2011–13), was rabidly anti-immigration. 'Failure to enforce immigration laws,' Strout wrote in a July 1977 column, 'is a scandal.' Strout even endorsed, long before E-Verify, legal sanctions against businesses that employed undocumented immigrants. But subsequent research showed immigration's financial cost to native-born Americans was minimal in most instances, and union leaders shifted from opposing undocumented immigrants to representing them. Among the voices today protesting most loudly the wrongful deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia are his fellow union members and their leaders. Since 1994, foreign-born workers have grown from 8.4 percent of union members to 15.4 percent, according to the nonprofit Center for Economic and Policy Research. If for no other reason, labor unions won't turn back the clock. ICE's criminal complaint against Huerta, which charges him with conspiracy to impede an officer, is shockingly thin. It makes much of the fact that Huerta and other protesters appear to have been summoned by an unidentified woman on the scene, and that these protesters all 'appeared to be communicating to each other' by cell phone. Apparently one ICE officer has incriminating video of Huerta 'typing text into his digital device while present at the protest'—more commonly known as exercising his First Amendment rights. At one point, according to the complaint, Huerta paced in front of a vehicle entrance gate, sat down, and urged other protesters to sit down alongside him, saying, 'Stop the vehicles' and 'It's a public sidewalk, they can't stop us.' That sounds less like a conspiracy than like a nonviolent protest. If the purpose was to impede, all it impeded was a parking spot, which, even in Los Angeles, is not a felony. (You might get a ticket for a first offense.) One ICE officer warned Huerta that if he didn't move he'd be arrested, to which Huerta replied, 'I can't hear you through your fucking mask.' The officer registered this as defiance, but it strikes me as entirely plausible that Huerta really couldn't hear the officer through his fucking mask. Huerta's other offenses include 'making an offensive gesture to law enforcement officers,' which I assume means he flipped them the bird, and unauthorized banging on the entrance gate. Huerta was finally arrested, according to the complaint, after an officer pushed him and Huerta pushed the officer back. Huerta was arraigned late Monday and released on a $50,000 bond. I'm no lawyer, but one obvious difficulty with the conspiracy charge is that Huerta is one person, and a conspiracy requires at least two. Who were Huerta's partners in this crime? Surely not the activists texting back and forth about the ICE raid; bearing witness is not a conspiracy. Neither is protesting. The relevant statute, 18 U.S. Code § 372, talks about preventing a person from holding an office, or inducing that person to leave the place where his duties are to be discharged, or injuring that officer or his property, none of which apply. A shove (assuming it really happened) doesn't typically cause injury, and anyway the only party sent to the hospital was Huerta himself. Unless ICE is withholding additional significant facts, this prosecution looks very unpromising. But whoever said the Trump administration gave a damn what happens in a courtroom? The point is to intimidate union leaders away from attending, witnessing, and recording ICE raids. So far, the strategy isn't succeeding. Huerta's manhandling inspired protests not only in Los Angeles but also in Seattle, Minneapolis, Raleigh, and elsewhere. Far from terrorizing the labor movement, Trump is galvanizing it.
CBS News
4 days ago
- CBS News
1 critically hurt after boat fire near NYC's Hart Island forces nearly 2 dozen into water
A boat fire near Hart Island forced nearly two dozen people into the water Saturday night, and one person is reported to be in critical condition. FDNY Assistant Chief Mike Meyers said routine marine patrols came across the boat fire near the east end of the island around 8:30 p.m. The crews noticed multiple people in the water and called for more emergency responders. According to Meyers, three people had to be pulled from the water. One of those victims was last reported to be in critical condition. The other two are expected to be OK. Nineteen other people were able to swim to shore on their own, Meyers said. They were then taken to a local hospital to be checked out. Meyers said responding to incidents on the water is very difficult. "We have to get those patients from the water or from boats onto the land and coordinate the land units and EMS units as to where those marine boats are gonna be bringing them," he said. "So it's an incredibly complex operation. Multiple agencies are always involved just like tonight." The cause of the boat fire is under investigation.
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Yahoo
Deputies: Man tries to trade submachine gun on Facebook Market Place
A man tried to trade a submachine gun for an ATV on Facebook Marketplace, according to the Cowlitz County Sheriff's Office. On Monday, a man spoke to the sheriff's office Crime Reduction Team (CRT) detectives about a person who responded to his listing on Facebook Marketplace. According to the sheriff's Office, Jacob Shawn Dixon responded to a listing for an all-terrain vehicle (ATV). Dixon was previously convicted of several weapons offenses and driving with a suspended license. He messaged the seller and asked if he could trade the ATV for a submachine gun, a suppressor, and a motorcycle. The sheriff's office said Dixon told the seller that he knew the gun was illegal in the state of Washington, but told the seller not to tell anyone. He also sent a video of the gun to show that the gun worked. CRT Detectives worked with Lower Columbia SWAT to stage a meeting with Dixon using a truck and trailer. Detectives were able to arrest and book Dixon on charges of unlawful firearms, first-degree unlawful possession of a firearm, dangerous weapons, assault weapons, and driving with a suspended license.
