Upper Keys Hit and Run....and Caught

[Bobcat]

Driver flees boat crash
Three hurt in crash
BY SANDRA FREDERICK Citizen Staff
What started as a fun day on the water for two men and two women, quickly turned into a chase by FWC officers after a hit and run crash injured two people onboard the boat.

Around 6 p.m. Sunday, a 24-foot Aqua Sport boat was heading to Lorelei Cabana Bar and Marina at Mile Marker 82 bayside when it rammed into an anchored 40-foot trawler in Big Basin, according to FWC officer Bobby Dube.

Kenneth W. Rumph, of Key Largo, the driver of the boat, received minor injuries and Gabriel Zelonker, of Miami, and Pamela Maldonado, of Fort Lauderdale, were also injured and transported to Mariners Hospital in Tavernier. Both were admitted. Another passenger, Nancy Gonzales, of llinois, was not injured, police reports said.

The lone occupant of the trawler was not hurt in the accident, the FWC officer added.

Rumph loaded the two injured people onto the boat of a Good Samaritan who rushed over to the accident scene. Then the driver sped off.

Several people at the scene heard the driver say he didn't want help and he had to go, the FWC report stated.

Ensign Peter Bermont, spokesman for the Coast Guard, said guardsmen from Islamorada pursued the boat and caught up with it around Mile Marker 90, some nine miles from the accident scene.

"It took our officers about 15 to 20 minutes to find and apprehend the driver of the boat," Bermont said Monday. "There are a bunch of mangroves back in there with a lot of turns and that makes it hard to find a boat."

Bermont said Bumph appeared intoxicated, according to the boarding officer. "It is my understanding that he refused a field sobriety test by the FWC."

Blood was drawn and additional charges are pending the results of toxicology reports, which take 30 to 60 days, said Dube.

The driver of the boat was transported to the hospital to be treated for his wounds and then transported to Plantation Key jail.

"He was bloodied and hurt so we took him to the hospital to be treated (once he was brought to shore)," said Dube. "He was not able to go to jail if he was hurt."

Rumph was charged with a third degree felony, leaving the scene of an accident-failure to render assistance involving personal injury.

Dube said Rumph was charged in 2003 with the same thing.

sfrederick@keysnews.com

[Ratickle]

A hit and run in a boat, twice?

[rschap1]

[Madpoodle]

He didn't see a 40' trawler?

[Ratickle]

Hey, it was in stealth mode......

[Serious News]

A Key Largo man unloaded his boat's passengers, then motored away from an Islamorada crash on the water Sunday, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission reported.

Kenneth W. Rumph, 43, was arrested after his 24-foot Aquasport was stopped by a U.S. Coast Guard vessel in Florida Bay, about eight miles from the Lorelei Cabana Bar boat basin, where the crash happened.

Rumph was booked into the county jail on a felony count of leaving the scene of a boat accident involving injury. He was released Monday on $15,000 bond, county records show.

According to an initial report filed by FWC Officer Jason Rafter, Rumph had three passengers aboard his boat as it approached the Lorelei, a popular waterfront restaurant at mile marker 82.

The Aquasport collided with an anchored 40-foot trawler, knocking down a man aboard the trawler.

The speed of the Aquasport is still being investigated, FWC information officer Bobby Dube said, "but it was fast enough to do some damage."

The starboard bow of the Aquasport was cracked and splintered when Rumph was stopped near Tavernier Creek.

After initial crash, Rumph transferred his three passengers onto the boat of a witness who went to help. Rumph then "fled the scene," according to the FWC.

Passengers Gabriel Zelonker of Miami and Pamela Maldonado of Fort Lauderdale were treated at Mariners Hospital for non-life-threatening injuries. Their conditions were not available. Nancy Gonzales of Illinois, the third passenger, declined treatment.

Rumph was examined at Mariners before he was booked into jail.

The trawler occupant's identity was not immediately available, but he did not appear to be seriously injured.



http://www.keysnet.com/2014/04/16/49.../99/106/&ihp=0