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Woman seriously hurt as boat runs into pole
By JOY DAVIS-PLATT, Times Staff Writer HERNANDO BEACH -- A 33-year-old woman was seriously injured Sunday when the boat she was in hit a pole. She was thrown from the boat and into the pole, which is several miles off the Hernando Beach coast. Florida Fish and Wildlife officers investigated the accident but did not release the name of the woman or the three other people in the boat. The woman was brought back to shore at the Hernando Beach Boat Ramp and was taken by air to St. Joseph's Hospital in Tampa with severe head and chest injuries. Nineteen-year-old Jonathan Skinner and his friend Jason Scarborough, both of Spring Hill, met the four boaters on Saturday at Rogers Park near Weeki Wachee and had made plans to meet the group on Sunday to explore one of the spoil islands off Hernando Beach. Skinner said he thought the group was from the Orlando area, but he never learned their names. "We didn't get to talk with them much," he said. "They were boating and they asked if they could come out to the island with us." But the other group left Rogers Park before Skinner arrived Sunday morning, he said. About 11 a.m. Sunday, the boat Skinner and his friend were in began to sink when the dry-rotted hull gave way. Less than an hour later, the 911 call came in about the accident where the woman was injured. "We were all just going to hang out for the day," Skinner said. The woman's condition was unknown late Sunday.
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From today's Hernando Times Editorial Letters |
