MIAMI (WSVN) - Rescue crews took two men to the hospital after a speedboat sank near Matheson Hammock State Park in Coral Gables.
Coral Gables Fire Rescue units arrived at the scene at 9610 Old Cutler Road, Friday morning.
Authorities said the boaters were leaving Matheson Hammock when an abrupt turn caused their vessel to flip and sent them into Biscayne Bay.
The two boaters were then able to swim to shore.
Good Samaritans assisted the boaters as they made their way to shore
They were transported to Jackson South Medical Center in critical condition.
7Skyforce hovered above the partially submerged vessel, its nose sticking straight out from the water.
Josue Rodriguez said he was going to meet the driver of the boat, whom he identified as Frankie, and the other man who was on board.
“We were going to go … and have a good time over there and probably go to the Keys and have a bite to eat and come back,” Rodriguez said.
Those plans drastically changed when something happened to the high-powered boat.
“Unfortunately, something happened today out there, a malfunction, ’cause he knew how to drive, you know? He wasn’t, like, a rookie or nothing,” Rodriguez said.
Cellphone video captured paramedics placing one of the boaters in an ambulance and the other with an officer as he tried to make a makeshift arm sling behind his neck.
Officials with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, the lead investigator in this incident, said they do not have any preliminary information yet.
Just after 4 p.m., FWC towed the boat up to North Miami-Dade to continue their investigation.
As the boat came out of the water, witnesses said, it looked like whatever happened was bad.
“It seemed like, either they collided with somebody, or the energy from flipping the boat over cracked one of the cowlings, which is the engine cover,” said witness Michael Salinero, “so it looks like it was pretty beat up.”
Now friends of the boat driver believe that whatever happened on the water was because of an issue with the boat.
“It could be a malfunction on the boat or something that happened, you know? Unfortunate event that caused whatever happened out there today,” said Rodriguez.
Despite speculations of the boat having issues, police confirmed that an abrupt turn is what sent the men into the water.
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