Medics airlift 3 after 7 injured in boat-bridge collision in Florida Keys
The Florida Keys stretch 180 miles from just south of Miami Beach to the southernmost point of the Florida Keys accessible to cars, Key West (pictured). On Monday, seven people were injured after a 35-foot center console boat crashed into a bridge in the Lower Florida Keys. File Photo by Michael Drager/Pixabay
Seven people were injured, including three who were airlifted to two hospitals in Miami, after a 35-foot center console boat crashed into a bridge in the Lower Florida Keys early Monday.
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission said six adults and two children were aboard. The center console boat was traveling at a “high rate of speed” and hit the South Pine Channel Bridge off Little Torch Key at about 2 a.m., the Miami Herald reported. Advertisement
Little Torch Key is about 27 miles from the most southern point accessible by car, Key West. The Keys stretch 180 miles from just south of Miami Beach to the Dry Tortugas.
Medics airlifted two victims to Jackson Memorial Hospital’s Ryder Trauma Center and one to Jackson South Medical Center. Four were taken to Lower Keys Medical Center in Key West. One person wasn’t hospitalized.
The boat operator is a Keys resident, according to the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office.
The group has taken off at about 9 p.m. Sunday, WPLG-TV reported.
Monroe County Fire Rescue used ladders to rescue those on board the boat before it sank.
“They used ladders from the old bridge to get down to rescue all of the people prior to the vessel sinking,” county spokeswoman Kristen Livengood told Keys Weekly. Advertisement
The boat remained sunken at the site of the bridge crash on Monday.
South Pine Channel Bridge connects Middle Torch Key with Ramrod Key in the Lower Keys.
On Friday, a boating hit-and-run fatality was reported off the Lower Keys, about 10 miles south of the console boat crash. A spearfisherman was struck and killed by a boat at 1:15 p.m. off Mile Marker 39, the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office said.