At least three people died over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend after a boat capsized on the Caloosahatchee River, according to reporting from News-Press.
At least one other person involved in the accident remained in “critical but stable condition” as of Monday morning.
The incident happened around 5 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 29, near the Cape Coral Yacht Club and involved an MTI 390 powerboat that flipped while carrying at least four people onboard. All four were sent into the water.
A man tragically drowned Sunday while fishing with at least one other person on lake Damon in Avon Park, about 75 miles south from Orlando.
Chase Winton Parrish, 29, was identified as the fisherman who died, according to reporting from The Miami Herald. Parrish was with one other man, whose identity has not been released, when they both fell into the water from their 13-foot boat. Parrish struggled in the water and the other man attempted to help him, but could not and swam back to the boat to call 911.
When emergency responders arrived, they found Parrish unresponsive in the water and he was pronounced dead at the scene.
Police in Sarasota chased down a speeding and out of control boat this week, but there was no operator on board to be investigated.
That is because the vessel’s operator, who was not wearing the kill switch, had been ejected when the vessel hit a wake. As a result, the man was thrown into the water without a life jacket as his unoccupied vessel sped off at 40 mph. When the vessel’s operator was thrown off, he broke two fingers but was otherwise uninjured, according to reporting from Fox News.
Fortunately, officers with the Sarasota Police Department’s Marine Patrol were able to catch up with the vessel, hop on and shut it off before anyone else was injured.
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