BAY HARBOR ISLANDS, FLA. (WSVN) - Authorities said they arrested a man in connection to a boat crash off the coast of Bay Harbor Islands over the weekend that sent four people to the hospital.
According to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, two vessels collided in the Intracoastal Waterway, near West Broadview Drive, afjacent to the Haulover Sandbar, early Saturday morning.
“The FWC was notified of a boating incident that occurred near the Haulover Sandbar at approximately 1 a.m. A 39-foot Donzi operated by Lawson with multiple passengers on board and a 20-foot angler with three occupants collided,” said FWC spokesperson George Reynaud.
Authorities said the suspect, identified as Daniel Lawson, was operating the Donzi recklessly at the time of the collision, going as fast as 55 miles per hour in a 30 mph zone and at one point improperly changing course.
Lawson appeared before Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge Mindy S. Glazer on Monday morning. The 42-year-old faces felony charges of reckless operation of a vessel, leaving the scene of a boating accident with injury and attempted tampering with physical evidence.
First reponders raced to face the victims on one of the boats as it sank.
“Fireboat 21, they’re advising boat accident with injuries,” said a dispatcher in radio transmissions.
“Twenty-one-foot white boat sinking, possible patient on board unconscious,” said a first responder in radio transmissions.
Area resident Joseph Levy said it was just after 1 a.m. when he noticed the commotion in Biscayne Bay.
“I saw a helicopter flying very low over here, which usually doesn’t happen late at night,” he said.
Levy said he immediately took out his cellphone and began to record.
“I saw the fire rescue boat and something in front of it that looked like a lot of boat pieces,” he said.
Investigators said Lawson fled southbound before later turning north and anchoring his vessel at the Haulover Sandbar.
Witnesses told FWC that the suspect never returned to the scene of the crash to determine whether the occupants of the angler required assistance.
Investigators said two occupants on board the angler, a woman and a juvenile, suffered serious injuries. The child suffered multiple hairline lacerations, as well as a hairline skull fracture, and the woman suffered a collapsed lung, fractured multiple ribs and lacerated her spleen.
Officials said two passengers on board the Donzi were injured as well.
“But I’ve never seen an accident over here,” said Levy.
Authorities said the suspect did not contact authorities but did contact a private towing company to have his Donzi removed it could be examined as evidence.
The angler was left with its bow torn apart. It was towed away on Sunday.
FWC officials said Lawson told law enforcement that the Donzi was anchored at the time of the crash.
In court Monday, Glazer set his bond at $45,000.
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