NORTH MIAMI BEACH, Fla. – New details have been released after five people were hospitalized Saturday night after a boat collided with a docked vessel near Maule Lake in North Miami Beach.
Officers with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission said they were notified of the crash around 8 p.m., which was caught on surveillance video.
6 p.m. report:
They said preliminary information indicates a vessel with one operator and seven passengers struck a docked boat, ejecting everyone on board.
Bram Fiebelkorn, who witnessed the crash, said he and other good Samaritans rushed to help those in need.
“It eventually hit that neighbor’s boat. I actually thought it was going to land in my porch here,” said Fiebelkorn. “I feel like that (docked) boat saved my life. It basically was a big bumper for the whole community.”
“We were more focused on helping the folks who were in the water,” he added. “We saw a lot of people just floating down the canal, and we did everything we could to help them out.”
The operator, who authorities identified Monday as Gabriel Salauis, 52, along with a woman and three juveniles, were transported to a nearby hospital for treatment.
“The way the boat flipped, there was an air pocket that provided what I think was a father and his son with enough air as it moved down the canal,” said Fiebelkorn. “I was on the boat with one of the fathers and he was basically knocked unconscious. We pulled him out of the boat, got him on a fishing boat that was floating down and they just happened to jump in and help out at the same time. They grabbed him, put him on the boat and you can tell he was shaken up. When the police came, we transferred him over to the police boat and I think they took him off to the hospital. Aside from that, it didn’t seem like there were any serious injuries. It is really incredible.”
Resident Demian Soares, who is a Miami Beach Fire Rescue paramedic, saw what happened and didn’t think twice.
“I saw my neighbor’s kayak, I put it in the water, I jumped in,” he said. “I saw someone’s leg, so I pulled the gentleman’s leg.”
The first responder helped one man get out of the water, and then he went back in for a child believed to be under the capsized vessel.
“I probably went back down like maybe eight times,” said Soares. “I started feeling around to see if I felt something, I felt something and I started pushing -- I think it was the child. I was pushing him toward the opposite gunnel and luckily the other gentleman was right there and he grabbed him, pulled him up.”
The crash remains under active investigation and no other details were immediately released.
“I think what happened was it throttled down by mistake and in order to avoid a boat that was right in front of it, it veered off to the left erratically and ended up launching off a neighbor’s boat,” said Fiebelkorn. “It was a really chaotic scene. I think from the videos that I saw, it looked like -- I don’t know if it was a confrontation or if they were friendly -- but it seemed like those two boats seemed to know each other.
“The boat that collided with the stationary boat here, it seemed like they sped up without knowing, without intending to, and to avoid that boat in front of them, they veered off to the left. I don’t know what the history was between those two boats, but it seemed like they knew each other at some point. Whether it was a confrontation or just some friendly banter back and forth, I have no idea.”
