At least one person was killed and multiple people were injured after a boat struck a ferry carrying dozens of passengers near the Clearwater Memorial Causeway in western Florida on April 27, authorities said.
The Clearwater Fire and Rescue Department declared the crash a “mass casualty incident” due to the number of injuries, the Clearwater Police Department said. In an update at 11:47 p.m., the city of Clearwater reported that one person died from injuries sustained in the crash and that authorities identified the boat that fled the scene of the crash.
“All of the injuries are from the ferry,” the Clearwater Police Department said in a statement on X. “The boat that struck the ferry fled the scene.”
The crash involved the Clearwater Ferry and a recreational vessel, according to the U.S. Coast Guard. The agency said on-scene reports indicated that 45 people were on board the ferry and that the recreational boat carried six people.
It was not immediately known how many were injured in the incident, but police said multiple trauma alerts were called, and all local hospitals had been notified. All passengers from both vessels were accounted for, the Coast Guard said.
The Coast Guard said watchstanders from its St. Petersburg, Florida, sector were notified at around 8:40 p.m. of a collision between the ferry and a recreational vessel. The ferry later stopped on a sandbar just south of the bridge, and all passengers on board were removed from the boat, according to police.
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission will handle the crash investigation, officials said.
The Clearwater Memorial Causeway is a six-lane bridge between downtown Clearwater and Clearwater Beach, Florida. The bridge is about 23 miles west of Tampa, Florida.
This is a developing story. Please follow @USATODAY for additional updates.
(This story was updated to add new information.)
