HIGHLAND BEACH, Fla. — One person is dead and six others injured after a single-vessel boat crash Sunday afternoon in Highland Beach.
Delray Beach Fire Rescue crews responded to the Intracoastal Waterway in the 1000 block of Bel Aire Drive at 5:15 p.m. and found one person dead, plus two adults and two children who were taken to nearby hospitals.
Two other people were also injured.
Longtime resident Jini Eastwood heard the screams after the boat crashed not far from her home. Eastwood said it was a woman who died.
“They were covered in blood," Eastwood recalled. "The woman, her husband, who was screaming, 'Is she dead? I want to be with my wife?"
Eastwood said she offered to call 911.
"I watched and I went between, guiding them in here, and I knew she was dead," Eastwood said.
While it's unclear what caused the crash, residents said boaters often speed through the area.
"I've been trying to get the town of Highland Beach to slow the boats down here because this was inevitable," Maggie Chappelear, who lives near the crash site, said. "Now, I can't tell you how many close calls my husband and I have had taking out Jini's boat, which is not here right now."
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission is investigating the crash. The identity of the person who died has not been released.
