Boater gets tossed out at about 90 mph

By CASEY CORA, Times Staff Writer
Published November 27, 2007

TARPON SPRINGS - A Pasco County man escaped serious injury Sunday when he was ejected from a speedboat traveling upward of 90 mph.

James K. Helmintoller, of Land O'Lakes, was driving his 353 Fastech speedboat down the Anclote River Channel when it hit a wake, ejecting the 43-year-old into the water and sending the unmanned vessel out of the river channel and into the open waters of the Anclote Anchorage bay, according to investigators with the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office Marine Unit.

The runaway boat traveled southwest for more than a mile, eventually veering right into the southwest corner of Anclote Key, where the vessel tore through about 500 feet of beach before stopping.

Helmintoller was rescued by U.S. Coast Guard personnel and later took himself to Helen Ellis Hospital with injuries officials described as non-life threatening.

He was cited with misdemeanor reckless operation of a vessel.

BRADENTON BEACH - A Sarasota man died in a boating accident in open waters in the Gulf of Mexico off Bradenton Beach on Sunday afternoon.

Henry Ogden was thrown from the bow of a 42-foot yacht carrying eight people and he was run over, according to Gary Morse, a spokesman for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

[Last modified November 26, 2007, 22:24:19]