NEW YORK – Two people are dead after their speedboat capsized during a boat race in Great South Bay near Patchogue, N.Y., around 5:30 p.m. today.
Coast Guard Station Fire Island personnel were on scene within moments.
“We were enforcing the security zone around the race and I noticed the water going every where,” said Petty Officer 1st Class Jeremy Clouse, the coxswain of a 25-foot response boat on scene. “The other 25-foot boat crew was already at the wreck with two Coast Guardsmen in the water trying to do what they could to get the people out. One of the race helicopters dropped a diver who was able to get the emergency hatch open and pull the victims out.”
The two men were transferred to a local fire response boat who ferried them to Emergency Medical Service personnel waiting on the shore. Both were pronounced dead at a local area hospital.
Weather on scene was one to two foot seas and five to 10 mile-per-hour winds at the time of the incident.
