# Boat hits beach at 40 mph, overturns



## BentStraight (Dec 27, 2008)

_News story from Fort Walton Daily News_:

NAVARRE – Four passengers on a 23-foot boat escaped serious injury Sunday night when their vessel hit the beach and overturned.
A 9-year-old boy was transported as a precaution, said Stan Kirkland, public information officer for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
The boat had been launched in Navarre and taken to Pensacola for a day of fishing, he said. It was returning at about 11 p.m. when it struck a point of sand sticking out into the south side of the Intercoastal Waterway.
Firefighters with the Navarre Beach Fire Department arrived to find the boat about 20 feet up on the sand. Passengers told firefighters that they had dug themselves out from under the boat, freeing the child who was trapped under a corner.
The boy was taken to Sacred Heart Hospital with minor injuries, according to Navarre Beach Firefighter Shaun Hall.
The accident is under investigation by FWC.
“It’s just amazing that nobody ended up seriously injured,” Kirkland said, adding that the boat was traveling an estimated 40 mph when it hit the sand.
The boat is owned by Jason Porter, a 32-year-old Milton resident, according to Kirkland, He did not release the names of the child or the other passengers.



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## feelin' wright (Oct 7, 2007)

Glad nobody was hurt. That is a bad area to run during the day. running it at night is probaly a nightmare without having a trail on you GPS


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## lastcast (Oct 12, 2007)

Just from that initial report sounds like they got very lucky. Hope the young one checks out okay.


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## PaulBoydenCustoms (Dec 3, 2008)

WOW, that's scary. did it give a more exact location as to where the sand bar was?


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## baymotorsports (Feb 28, 2008)

its not difficult to stay in the channel.....

he must have been confused where he was at are just not paying attention


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## billyk (Nov 15, 2007)

PaulBoydenCustoms said:


> WOW, that's scary. did it give a more exact location as to where the sand bar was?


not sure it was a sand bar, as it was the entire Island !!


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## circlehook69 (Apr 23, 2010)

*Sounds like they may have been about 3/4 the way down the houses on Navarre beach if your heading west. There is a point around there that runs out quite a bit from shore and at best high tide is less than 1 1/2ft. There is another spot on the North side near Williams Creek, that maybe 8 ft inside the channel markers is only 2ft or so. Hope the boy's ok.*


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## Play'N Hooky Too (Sep 29, 2007)

11 pm....40 mph...??:blink:


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## BigSlick (Jun 13, 2010)

Play'N Hooky said:


> 11 pm....40 mph...??:blink:


+1 Whenever I'm coming in from a night trip, the scariest part is navigating the pass with no chart plotter on my gps. So I'm going 5kts if that. unless i can get a spotlight on the next bouy to run to.


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## dockmaster (Sep 27, 2007)

Pensacola Pass has range lights... just hop on them and you will be right in the middle of the channel. Oh wait, you would have to look at a chart or your chart plotter and connect the lines to the ranges........lol 
Speed kills at night. Guess a sandbar is better than a barge or another boat. 40mph at night is crazy, specially if you don't know where you are, which this was obvious the case. I guess this would be called : lot of situation awareness or traveling to fast for the conditions... A few years ago a family hit a barge east of the Bob Sikes bridge and someone was killed. Slow the Frok down.... their lucky.

BillD


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## a (Oct 2, 2007)

what ever happened to the drunk who drove his family up onto Ono island? Killed most of his passengers?


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## Pinksnappertrapper (Dec 7, 2007)

That whole area from navarree bridge to ft walton is zig zag thats how you can get out of the channel, My gps shows bouys so you can stay in the channel but if you get out of that channel in that area its not like Pensacola its shallow real shallow and it gets there quick.


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## hjorgan (Sep 30, 2007)

*There was one fatality on that Ono deal*

Never heard any outcome on that one, it was right behind our house.



a said:


> what ever happened to the drunk who drove his family up onto Ono island? Killed most of his passengers?


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## Diesel (Jan 9, 2008)

dockmaster said:


> Pensacola Pass has range lights... just hop on them and you will be right in the middle of the channel. Oh wait, you would have to look at a chart or your chart plotter and connect the lines to the ranges........lol
> Speed kills at night. Guess a sandbar is better than a barge or another boat. 40mph at night is crazy, specially if you don't know where you are, which this was obvious the case. I guess this would be called : lot of situation awareness or traveling to fast for the conditions... A few years ago a family hit a barge east of the Bob Sikes bridge and someone was killed. Slow the Frok down.... their lucky.
> 
> BillD


I've made my thoughts on topics related to this abundantly clear...all I can do is shake my head. Glad it basically turned out all right.


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## Captain Mickey O'Reilly (Dec 18, 2008)

AMAZING! We dont run those speeds or even close when running offshore at night, and thats with radar, plotter, etc... lesson learned, again :thumbdown:


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## hogdogs (Apr 19, 2010)

> unless i can get a spotlight on the next bouy to run to.


Even then I tend to maintain a low speed as I cannot see submerged hazards ahead of me like I can in daylight!

Brent


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## Johnms (Nov 29, 2010)

hogdogs said:


> Even then I tend to maintain a low speed as I cannot see submerged hazards ahead of me like I can in daylight!
> 
> Brent


Two weeks ago a 30' marker post on the ICW (#22) by the park leading to Big Lagoon was knocked down and sticking only about 2 feet out of the water - for about 20 hours. It was completely gone the next morning. I was wondering if someone hit it again.


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## BananaTom (Feb 16, 2008)

Johnms said:


> Two weeks ago a 30' marker post on the ICW (#22) by the park leading to Big Lagoon was knocked down and sticking only about 2 feet out of the water - for about 20 hours. It was completely gone the next morning. I was wondering if someone hit it again.


*A couple of years ago I found one like that. Anchored in front of it and called Coast Guard. They arrived. Looked at it and left. Said it was not the problem. That the Corp of Engineers would respond.*

*I sat there for several hours, in the ICW, the last marker on the south side before east bound Bob Sikes. North of Little Sabine channel. You know that is a high traffic area.*

*No one ever came, and it was time to leave. I thought about pulling it, up, as I knew I could with my vessel, but then decided not to. Leaving it was hard, knowing someone may hit it and get hurt.*


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## hogdogs (Apr 19, 2010)

Even in my ol' 12 foot skiff with 2hp zuke, I often found myself puttin' along at half or less throttle at night... WOT produced 6 knots max with the littlest bit of gear aboard... So 2-3 knots with a spotlight in hand and I never felt I was going too slow.

Not to mention how easy it was to change course or stop that little boat.

Brent


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## 69Viking (Oct 30, 2008)

40 mph in the dark in the sound, that's absolutely insane!


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## Hook (Oct 2, 2007)

A big +2


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## jsims006 (Jun 15, 2011)

This is a grim reminder to travel only as fast as safety allows.


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## aroundthehorn (Aug 29, 2010)

a said:


> what ever happened to the drunk who drove his family up onto Ono island? Killed most of his passengers?



When did that happen?


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## Play'N Hooky Too (Sep 29, 2007)

aroundthehorn said:


> When did that happen?


http://www.pensacolafishingforum.com/f21/prayer-needed-2-dead-31-cape-21633/


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## aroundthehorn (Aug 29, 2010)

Wow. Was alcohol a factor?


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## hogdogs (Apr 19, 2010)

In the incident "play'n hooky" linked to... the driver Micheal Driver has not been tried for BUI manslaughter yet...



> what ever happened to the drunk who drove his family up onto Ono island? Killed most of his passengers?


 
http://blog.al.com/live/2011/08/baldwin_county_judge_allows_ho.html
Micheal Driver goes on trial in October... DANG!!! Wreck was on 8-24-08 and trial set for 10-31-11... Will watch for details of trial and outcome on it.

Brent


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## PaulBoydenCustoms (Dec 3, 2008)

He is a friend of mine. It is very unfortunate


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## driver (Sep 24, 2009)

always drive at a speed where you can stop within the distance you can see thats how i drive my truck and boat and have never had an accident


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## Mudigger (Aug 5, 2011)

I navigate at night all the time. SLOW SLOW SLOW. I light a cigar and take the leisure time to talk with my wife or tell lies to my other fishing partners.


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## dockmaster (Sep 27, 2007)

I wonder if the Navarra incident will result in any State charges by the FWC . Clearly 2 violations of Rule 6 of the Navigation Rules or negligent violation resulting in injury.... 

Rock on
BillD


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## Sea-r-cy (Oct 3, 2007)

Johnms said:


> Two weeks ago a 30' marker post on the ICW (#22) by the park leading to Big Lagoon was knocked down and sticking only about 2 feet out of the water - for about 20 hours. It was completely gone the next morning. I was wondering if someone hit it again.


I found a 30' or so nav marker pole with metal frame and markers floating 12 miles of Destin a few years ago. I contacted the CG and gave them the lat/lon. They didn't seem interested in coming out and marking or retrieving the pole. Could you imagine hitting something like this at 20 knots? Would rip the bottom out of a boat. 

Sea-r-cy


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