SARASOTA, Fla. —
Sarasota Marine Patrol Officer Michael Skinner thought he was responding to a boat-gone-rogue one Friday afternoon when he suddenly realized a man was lying face down on the deck.
The call he initially got regarding an “unmanned vessel” doing circles quickly became a rescue call when Skinner arrived at the scene near Siesta Key.
“The boat did one circle and as it passed me I saw an individual lying down on the deck of the boat and blood everywhere,” Skinner said. "I thought he was deceased – the position he was in.”
Looking around at his options, Skinner spotted a seawall nearby with shallow water and decided to use his vessel to “shove” the boat against the seawall.
“I made the decision that this boat needs to be stopped right now,” he said. “This person needs immediate medical attention.”
His body camera video shows the moment of impact and his quick actions to jump onto the rogue boat and turn off its engine. As he moves around the boat, blood spots appear on parts of the deck.
Skinner said the boat had already hit several dock pilings and a channel marker.
Footage from Skinner’s body camera shows the man positioned face-down on the boat deck, with his head between the helm and starboard side of the boat. His legs were wrapped around the helm, stuck against the captain’s chair.
First responders from the Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office and Sarasota County Fire Department were standing by along the seawall behind a Sarasota home as Skinner maneuvered the boat to run it aground, ready to jump in as soon as they could.
The man was somewhat conscious when EMS crews got on the boat, the Sarasota Police Department said. Video of the rescue shows EMS confirm that he was breathing and able to talk. He was able to move his legs from the knee down but unable to dislodge them from where they were stuck.
He told first responders that he hit a wake and fell forward, making him unable to get up.
As EMS helps him up from lying face-down to turn him on his back, the man’s face is stained with blood and a spool of blood appears from where his face was against the starboard deck.
Eventually, a team of first responders carried the man up off his boat and onto land where they could give him more medical attention before transporting him to Sarasota Memorial Hospital.
Police said he is expected to make a full recovery.
Skinner had just taken out a brand-new Sarasota Police boat when the call came in reporting the incident in the inner coastal waterway by Phillippi Creek, within what’s called the "Siesta Stretch." It’s the area between the north and south Siesta Key bridges, a very popular spot for boaters.
“We have 22,000 boats registered in Sarasota County,” Skinner said. “So on any given day, we’re going to have several hundred boats trafficking in that area.”
He said this incident is a perfect example of why boaters need to use their emergency cutoff switch correctly. It’s a type of lanyard that connects the boat captain to the helm with enough slack so that if the captain leaves the area of the helm, it pulls the emergency cutoff switch, and the boat’s engine shuts off.
“Unfortunately it’s not uncommon that people are using these emergency cutoff switches as keychains. That’s not their intended purpose,” Skinner said.
In this man’s case, Skinner said if the emergency cutoff switch had been in use, it would have forced the engine to turn off when he fell to the boat's deck.
“That boat would’ve come to slow, almost to a stop, and probably could’ve had some good Samaritans get rescue to him a lot quicker,” he said. “We see it time and time again where we’re asking for things during a safety stop and it’s taking people several minutes to find it. It should be in the most reasonable and accessible spot that you can get to it so if you need it in an emergency, you can get it.”
This incident, which happened on May 3, comes ahead of National Safe Boating Week, which will occur from May 18-24.