Second fatality in five months and other injuries reflect growing trouble on stretch of waterway plagued by congestion and excessive speeds
By Rich Pollack
It’s happened again.
For more than a decade Highland Beach residents living along the Intracoastal Waterway have complained that speeding boats throw off wakes that damage sea walls and docked boats.
They lobbied state legislators and the state agency with jurisdiction to create a no-wake zone and slow boaters down, warning that if nothing was done there could be dire consequences.
In August, those predictions came true when a 37-year-old woman was killed after the northbound center-console boat she was in crashed into a sea wall, ejecting her and six others, including children.
Then last month, a northbound center-console boat hit a wake and went airborne before crashing into pilings and hitting a docked boat. A 63-year-old grandfather died after he and two boys were tossed into the water. The injured boys were helped by residents from the nearby Seagate condominium and treated by paramedics before being taken to Delray Medical Center.
“We’ve had seven boating accidents behind our house over the years but there were no fatal crashes in the entire town until last year,” said Peggy Gossett-Seidman, a town commissioner who has lived beside the Intracoastal for three decades. “We’re in a more serious time now because there are so many more pleasure boats and less visibility of law enforcement due to budget cuts.”
Just two months before the first fatal accident, a 48-year-old Boca Raton man was seriously injured when a northbound boat slammed into the back of his smaller vessel. That boater, Harold “JR” Ewing, is still recovering from his injuries.
While accidents on the Intracoastal Waterway are not uncommon, the number of fatal boating crashes on the waterway remains fairly low.
Since 2016, there have been five fatal crashes on the part of the Intracoastal that cuts through Palm Beach and Broward counties, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, which oversees the waterway.
That two happened along the 3-mile stretch in Highland Beach — within just five months of each other — has residents hoping something can be done soon to slow boaters down.
Following the second accident, state Rep. Mike Caruso reached out to leaders of the FWC, which is investigating the crashes. They told him a management team would soon be sent to the area to determine if a no-wake zone should be established, Caruso said.
In a Jan. 31 email, the FWC confirmed its staff had met with Caruso the previous week and that the agency would take steps to improve safety in the area.
The agency “previously met with county staff in regards to the application process for a boating restricted area,” an FWC spokesperson wrote. “We have also increased patrol efforts in this specific area.”
In addition, the town of Highland Beach hopes to launch its new marine unit, with a boat that will patrol the Intracoastal, by next month.
More and bigger boats
Veteran boaters John and Maggie Chappelear, who live just off the Intracoastal, say multiple factors make boating — especially on weekends — more dangerous than it used to be. More and bigger boats on the narrow stretch of water moving at faster speeds create wakes that can cause havoc for smaller vessels, the Chappelears say. “It’s all about the wakes,” Maggie Chappelear said. “Wakes are killing people.”
Wakes and speed, Gossett-Seidman said, create a dangerous situation, especially for less experienced boaters.
“If you see a big wake coming you can just slow down and, in most cases, just ride over it,” she said. “If you don’t slow down, you’ll hit the wake full speed and hit it hard. You can’t always control a boat under speed that’s hit by a large wake.”
Gossett-Seidman, herself a boater, said that traffic on the Intracoastal has continued to grow to the point where some more experienced boaters stay home on Saturday and Sunday.
“Some weekends it looks like I-95 on the Intracoastal,” she said. “It’s just one boat after another.”
The migration of people from the north during the pandemic could play a role in that, Gossett-Seidman says.
“So many people come here and want to live the boating life,” she said.
Slowing down the transplants and other boaters has been a battle Highland Beach leaders have been fighting for years.
The speed limit on the waterway by Highland Beach is 25 miles per hour during manatee season, which runs mid-November through March, and 30 mph off season. Even if boaters go the speed limit — and that’s a big if — they’re going too fast for the conditions, the Chappelears say.
They believe that requiring a minimum wake speed would cut down on the problems, but persuading the FWC to lower the speed has been a challenge.
Maggie Chappelear, who sits on the town’s Natural Resources Committee, says she’s been told that a vessel congestion study, an accounting for tickets issued on the waterway and additional data would be needed before lowering the speed would even be considered.
Town especially vulnerable
The Chappelears and Gossett-Seidman say that one reason the stretch of Highland Beach has so many accidents is that boaters coming from the south have to stay slow until they get to the Spanish River Boulevard bridge and boaters from the north remain slow as they approach the Linton Boulevard bridge.
Some boaters, they say, try to make up for lost time when they get to Highland Beach.
Maggie Chappelear said that several blind corners on the waterway, where entering boat captains can’t see if traffic is coming, also create issues.
Although the FWC does have officers on boats patrolling the Intracoastal, local law enforcement officials say that department just doesn’t have the staffing and the resources to make a significant impact.
That is one reason why Highland Beach is launching a new marine unit focused primarily on the Intracoastal but also available for use on the ocean and inland waters.
The decision by the Town Commission to spend $164,000 on the boat — and to staff it with a dedicated officer — came following the first fatal accident.
The focus, says Town Manager Marshall Labadie, will be on slowing boats down, primarily by being visible and through education.
“We’re finding that some boats are going faster than the speed limit,” he said. “A presence during high-use periods will be very useful.”
Highland Beach Police Chief Craig Hartmann says the department has already hired an experienced marine officer to oversee the marine unit operations and should have the boat in hand soon. He hopes to have the boat in the water as early as March.
“Like everything else, our goal with the marine unit will be on compliance,” he said.
A push for state legislation
Caruso (R-Delray Beach) believes the state Legislature can take steps to enhance safety.
He said he plans to meet with sponsors of a proposed bill addressing several boater safety issues and possibly introduce an amendment that would provide regulations for safer conditions on the Intracoastal.
He said he’s also concerned about the impact that wakes from speeding boats can have on sea walls as well as on manatees and natural areas that provide wildlife habitat.
“We’ve got a lot of concerns, and slowing boats can alleviate many of them,” he said.
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