Deputy makes daring move to stop unmanned, runaway boat
A deputy with the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office in Florida bravely leaped from a patrol boat and into an unmanned, runaway boat to neutralize the out-of-control vessel that had lost its owner overboard. The boat was traveling at a speed of about 41 mph.
“Yes, Deputy Fernandes does his own stunts,” the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office in the Tampa stated in its Facebook post.
Body-camera footage from Deputy Travis Fernandes shows the runaway boat as the patrol boat, driven by Deputy Jill Constant, pulls alongside. Fernandes jumps into the unmanned boat and immediately throttles down to bring the runaway boat to a stop, as seen in the video posted on YouTube by the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office and accompanied by Van Halen’s song “Jump.”
“The driver had fallen off and was rescued by a Good Samaritan,” the sheriff’s office stated in the post. “The Coast Guard attempted to deploy prop-fowling devices to stop the vessel, but they were unsuccessful. Deputy Constant intercepted the runaway vessel by matching its speed (about 41 mph) inside the curve, allowing Fernandes to leap aboard and take control of the vessel.”
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“If you don’t want this to happen to you, always connect your kill switch lanyard,” the sheriff’s office stressed in the video.
The vessel was intercepted about two miles east of St. Petersburg, according to the New York Post.
