After an accident at Lake Tarpon, some boats passed by an injured man as he waved for help. His fishing buddy died.
By RICHARD DANIELSON
Published May 4, 2004
TARPON SPRINGS - Pinellas County sheriff's investigators have ruled out a mechanical malfunction as the cause of a weekend boating accident on Lake Tarpon that killed a Largo man and seriously injured a Tarpon Springs man.
Isaac W. Henry, 50, died after the boat he was driving suddenly made a hard right turn, throwing him and Chaison W. Dyer, 21, out of the boat to the left, sheriff's Sgt. Dwayne Somers said Monday.
After the men were thrown overboard, the boat continued its turn, circled and hit Dyer, who was trying to swim to shore. The boat's propeller nearly severed his arm below the elbow, Somers said. Dyer, who underwent surgery Saturday night and Sunday, was in fair condition Monday afternoon at Bayfront Medical Center in St. Petersburg.
The accident occurred about 6:45 p.m. Saturday. The two men worked together at Henry's carpentry business and had borrowed the boat from Robert A. Phillips of Palm Harbor for a fishing trip on Lake Tarpon. They left the boat ramp at Anderson Park and traveled east on the lake about 30 mph, according to sheriff's officials.
Henry apparently let go of the steering wheel just before the accident, Somers said.
Dyer told deputies Henry reached down for something, perhaps a can moving around on the boat's deck, immediately before the 18-foot Hydra-Sports bass boat went into a sharp right turn.
The boat's speed dropped, suggesting that Henry's other hand was on the throttle when the boat went into the turn and that he moved the throttle as he was thrown overboard, Somers said.
After he had been hit by the bass boat, Dyer tried to flag down two passing boaters without success, Somers said.
But two other boaters stopped when they saw something was wrong.
Blake McCollom, 31, of New Port Richey and James Nelson, 33, of Palm Harbor were taking their new boats out for a cruise Saturday evening when they came upon the accident.
"We got to the north end of the lake, and I just spotted a bass boat going in circles," said Nelson, a Progress Energy lineman. "At first, I thought it was a young kid playing around. Then I looked closer and there was no one on the boat."
McCollom saw Dyer, pulled him out of the water and hailed the operator of a nearby pontoon boat to take him to shore.
"I asked him, "Are you by yourself?' and he said, "No, there's someone else,' " McCollom said. Dyer seemed remarkably alert when he first came out of the water, then seemed to go into shock when he saw how badly mangled his arm was, said McCollom and his girlfriend, Amanda Driggers, 22, of New Port Richey.
They found Henry after McCollom saw his red shirt about a thousand feet away in the lake, Nelson said. Henry was a large man, and it took both men and a younger man from a passing personal watercraft to pull him onto the boat.
At one point, McCollom and Driggers said, another boat with two adults and three children aboard idled up to within 10 feet of theirs. Exhausted from the effort of pulling Henry out of the water, they appealed for help, but the two adults aboard ignored them, they said.
"They said no, and they drove off," McCollom said. "I could not believe it. I still cannot."
"Everyone seemed like they were very reluctant to help," Driggers said. "Everyone wanted to know what was going on, but no one wanted to help."
Nelson gave Henry mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, and Driggers and McCollom tried doing chest compressions after they pulled him aboard and as they took him to waiting paramedics at the Anderson Park boat ramp. Although Henry died, sheriff's officials credited the boaters with saving Dyer's life.
"This guy McCollom did a heck of a job and a heck of a rescue," Somers said.
Henry is believed to have drowned, Somers said. He had bruises on his left side suggesting that he might have had the wind knocked out of him when he hit the water. Dyer told deputies he saw Henry trying to swim after the accident.
Neither man was wearing a life jacket, but they had the proper safety equipment aboard the boat and were not required to have life jackets on, Somers said. The accident is not believed to be alcohol-related, he said.
Henry had lived here since 1979, when he moved from his native Cayman Brac in the British West Indies. He owned and operated Henry's Carpentry in Largo. Nelson had seen him on the lake before and had never seen Henry do anything unsafe.
"That guy Isaac was a super nice guy," Nelson said. "It's not like he was an inexperienced boater."
- Staff writer Betsy Bolger-Paulet contributed to this report. Richard Danielson can be reached at (727) 771-4311.
