Video shows Sarasota police officer jumping onto and stopping a moving unmanned boat
By: Sarasota, FL - Sarasota Police Department’s Marine Unit was able to stop a speeding 26-foot boat Monday after the operator was thrown from the vessel.
The unit responded to a call of a boater in distress north of the Ringling Museum. They found an unmanned vessel circling at approximately 40 mph.
After several attempts to foul the vessel’s motor with tow-lines were unsuccessful, SeaTow was able to deploy a plasma tow-line, slowing the vessel enough for officers to come alongside the boat and jump aboard, bringing the runaway vessel to a stop.
The man driving the boat later told Marine Unit officers that he was returning the boat after the weekend’s Boat Show at Marina Jack when a larger vessel cut in front of him. As he attempted to navigate the wake, he was thrown from the boat.
The operator, who suffered only minor injuries, was not wearing a life jacket and was not utilizing the vessel’s emergency engine cut-off switch at the time of the incident.
No damage was reported to any law enforcement vessels or to the operator’s 26-foot Everglades vessel.