Sarasota PD
The Sarasota, Florida Police Department made a daring ‘leap of faith’ to stop an unmanned boat traveling 40mph after the driver was knocked off the boat. Sarasota PD worked with Sea Tow who deployed a high-strength synthetic ‘Plasma Rope’ which is so strong it is often used in place of wire ropes.
This incident occurred earlier in the week just off Marina Jack in downtown Sarasota, which actually got its name (in part) from my paternal grandfather, Jack Anderson, who owned and operated the marina with his business partner Jack Graham (two Jacks!) before I was even born… It’s a small world, isn’t it?
It occurred when a larger vessel crossed in front of the boat and he hit the wave at an awkward angle. When boating along, it is ALWAYS advisable to wear a bracelet attached to the engine’s kill switch or have a Bluetooth device attached to the kill switch.
Unfortunately, the driver had just left Marina Jack and was not hooked up to the kill switch so when he took the wave from the passing boat at an awkward angle and was launched into the water with his vessel traveling at 40mph the engine kept going. Officer Ron Dixon from the Sarasota Police Department’s Marine Unit was the first to respond after the boat’s driver was knocked into the water. Daring footage of Sarasota PD’s Lt. Brice King jumping onto the moving vessel has gone viral nationwide.
Sarasota Police Marine Unit Daring Rescue Of Unmanned Boat Traveling 40 MPH
This is a particularly sensitive incident for us Sarasota locals after a 10-year-old boy lost his life in 2022 after falling overboard and being fatally struck by a boat propeller. It was and remains to be a tragic incident that every local boater was impacted by in more ways than one. That tragic incident led to the passing of Ethan’s Law on July 1st, 2022 which requires all boaters operating vessels 26-feet and under to wear an emergency kill switch when operating their vessels.
However, Ethan’s Law is a federal law and is only able to be enforced through Coast Guard citations and Sarasota PD is unable to write citations for those who aren’t wearing the kill switch, according to the Sarasota Herald Tribune.
No charges were filed against the boater who was thrown into the water and his boat was towed to a local Sarasota marina. According to the Herald Tribune, the driver “became choked up as he shared how apologetic and happy he was to be alive and mostly uninjured” while speaking with officers at the hospital.
Ultimately, this was a good ending to the incident as nobody was seriously injured. The Sarasota Police Department Marine Unit officer put his life on the line jumping onto the moving boat. Had something gone wrong he could have been thrown into the water, been at risk of being hit by the propeller, or smacking his head on a moving boat.
It was a very dangerous situation and one that I’m a bit surprised didn’t involve them firing bullets into the moving engine to shut it off but the Plasma Rope did its job!