Two boaters are recovering at Ryder Trauma Center from injuries sustained in a hit-and-run crash in the waters off Coconut Grove late Saturday.
The collision occurred about two and a half miles off Dinner Key Marina when a speeding boat hit a 13-foot Boston Whaler carrying a couple, a man and a woman who were returning from Nixon Beach, Miami Fire Rescue officials said.
The man, identified as 48-year-old Steven Michael Hudson, suffered severe head trauma and the woman, 47-year-old Brenda O'Campo, is in stable condition.
The impact made the boat inoperable and knocked the couple's emergency gear, such as flares and a GPS, out of the vessel. The two drifted at sea for about an hour, according to Miami Fire Rescue.
With her boyfriend appearing unconscious, the woman used her cell phone to call 911. She told a dispatcher she had trouble locating where they were in relation to land.
"Where are we, please tell me where we are baby. Look that way, please tell me where we're at, baby, baby," she is heard saying in the 911 call.
"And he's passed out you said?" the dispatcher responds.
"Yeah, he's bleeding a lot, please hurry up," she said.
"This woman was very lucky, this is a situation where she had to rely on a cell phone and stayed on the cell phone for 52 minutes," said Miami Fire Rescue spokesman Ignatius Carroll. "A lot of times most people's phones wouldn't even last that long, if they've been using it so it's a good thing, because that's the only way we would have been able to locate her."
The woman told the operator she was cold, shaking and couldn't see anything in the frantic 911 call.
It took authorities nearly an hour to find the couple with a helicopter searchlight.
The speeding boat fled the scene but was found late Sunday, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. It was later reported stolen.
"Right now we don't have too much to go on. That's why we're seeking the media's help to assist in getting the story out because we need witnesses. We need people who were on board the vessel," said Jorge Pino, spokesman of the FWC. "We believe there was more than one person other than the operator on board the striking vessel. So, if you were on board that vessel it's in your best interest to come forward and let us know what happened."
Authorities have not provided a description of the driver of the boat that sped off.
FWC has launched an investigation into the accident.
