Friday, June 12, 2015

A TEENAGE TOUR GUIDE WAS KILLED IN AN OPEN-WATER HIGH SPEED CRASH BETWEEN HIS PERSONAL WATERCRAFT AND A 20-FOOT-LONG BOAT


JUNE 11, 2015

PANAMA CITY BEACH, FLORIDA

A teenage tour guide was killed in an open-water crash between his personal watercraft and a 20-foot-long boat, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) confirmed Thursday.

Storm Davis McDaniel, 17, was pronounced dead at a local hospital Wednesday night at about 7 p.m. after the crash in Grand Lagoon, FWC officials reported.

According to FWC reports, McDaniel was driving a 2013 Yamaha personal watercraft between 35 mph and 45 mph east in Grand Lagoon with a group of followers behind him.  James D. Moulder, of Brewton, Alabama, was approaching a campsite area of St. Andrews State Park, operating a 20-foot-long Sea Fox containing three other occupants, officers reported.

Officials said McDaniel was facing backward, toward the group following behind him, at about 5:40 p.m. when he careened into the front, port-side of the vessel and was ejected from the personal watercraft. Two occupants of the Sea Fox also were ejected from the boat because of the violence of the impact between the vessels, officials said.

Investigators reported Moulder was operating at a slow speed with his motor trimmed after entering shallow, grassy water. He attempted to make an evasive maneuver, but he could not get enough propulsion before the crash happened, FWC officers said.

However, witnesses in the group of personal watercrafts said the boat was unwavering in direction and traveling at about 25 mph. Some gave their contact information to investigators but have not been contacted for a statement, one witness said.

“There’s no way this boat was operating at a low rate of speed,” said Alex Beasley, a visitor from Huntsville, Alabama, who was at the back of one personal watercraft. “And we weren’t in shallow, grassy water. We’d just started turning it up because we were in open water.”