A PACKED ferry carrying dozens of festivalgoers was left stranded and battered after a horror hit-and-run crash on the water — leaving one dead and at least a dozen injured.
The Clearwater Ferry was taking passengers back from the final night of Florida’s 17-day Sugar Sand Festival when it was struck by a private boat.
2
2
The horror crash unfolded near the Memorial Causeway Bridge just after 10pm Sunday.
Terrifying images show the ferry grounded on a sandbar as emergency crews declared a “mass casualty event” and raced to haul terrified passengers to safety.
Clearwater Police said the private boat fled the scene after the smash.
It was later located with six passengers on board, but nobody was injured.
Passenger Marco Vacheco told local outlet 10 Tampa Bay: “It was like a big yacht, it hit from behind, like it came through where the captain sits, like he was pinned down.”
His wife, Brenda Alvarez, hailed brave first responders who waded through shallow waters to rescue their children.
“Where we were, it was really shallow, so there was actually some paramedics that went out there and helped my children and I get off the boat,” she said.
All of those hurt were aboard the ferry, which was carrying 43 passengers and two crew members at the time of the collision.
Six passengers were declared “trauma patients,” with two of them airlifted to hospital by medical helicopters, police said.
