Three young boaters are luck to be alive after they were left floating in life jackets in the waters off Haulover Beach Monday night after their boat collided with another boat.
Police were alerted to the endangered boaters when a distress call came into the Miami-Dade 911 center around 9 p.m. Monday night.
"We received a call from a person on a cell phone that claimed to be on a vessel that was struck by another vessel," said Miami-Dade Division Chief Pedro Bas. "They advised that one of their friends was injured and that their boat was taking on water."
Emergency responders were able to trace the call to the waters off Haulover Beach Marina. They also were able to get in touch with the caller's parents, who confirmed that their son was out fishing with his friends and had not come home.
Several agencies, including the Coast Guard, Air Rescue, and Miami-Dade Fire Rescue started combing the waters from Oleta State River Park as far south as Government Cut.
After four hours of searching, finally good news came.
"We're very happy to report that we were able to make contact with the original caller and he confirmed that their boat did capsize, that it did end up sinking, and that luckily they were wearing life vests and because of that they were picked up by another vessel," said Bas.
Local
The good samaritan took the three boaters to a marina in Fort Lauderdale. One of the boaters was injured and bleeding and had to be taken to a hospital in Broward.
"It's a good outcome," said Bas, "which may have been much different had they not had life vests."
