Speeding boat found racing around Florida river in the dark — with no people aboard

A boat with no one aboard was found racing around a North Florida river in the dark on Father’s Day, and a sheriff’s deputy used a rather ingenious maneuver to stop it.

The runaway vessel was pushed to the river bank when the deputy began generating waves with his boat, the Nassau County Sheriff’s Office reports.

Investigators say the incident happened around 11 p.m. on Sunday, June 18, in the St. Marys River, not far from the Florida-Georgia state line.

“Our Marine Unit received (a) call of a vessel crashing into another boat,” the sheriff’s office wrote on Facebook. “One of the boat operators was thrown into the water after the impact of the crash.”

His boat didn’t stop there, however. It left him behind in the water and began doing circles around the river, video shows.

That’s when a deputy with the department’s Agricultural, Marine & Underwater Recovery Unit decided to try making “waves with his boat to direct the runaway boat onshore.”

It worked, and deputies were able to get control of the boat and tow it to the DeeDee Bartels ramp near Fernandina Beach, officials said.

The name of the deputy was not released.

As for the operator of the boat, deputies rescued him from the lake with non-life threatening injuries. He decided against going to a hospital, officials said. His identity was also not released.

The Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission is investigating the crash, officials said.

Fernandina Beach is about 35 miles northeast of downtown Jacksonville.

This story was originally published June 20, 2023 at 2:53 PM with the headline "Speeding boat found racing around Florida river in the dark — with no people aboard."