2 Dead 1 injured after Boat Hits Dock in St. Augustine

ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. -

Two men are dead and a woman is in critical condition after a boat hit a dock in St. Augustine on Sunday night.

Quick Clicks

• Crews search for missing boater
• Crews search for missing boater
• Boating safety
• Cops increase manatee zone patrols

The vessel was traveling south of the Bridge of Lions about 10 p.m. when it hit the dock connected to a home in the Pelican Reef neighborhood.

All three passengers were ejected into the water. Warren Hall and and Franklin Babb (pictured below on right), both 52, died in the crash. Alicia Babb (pictured below on left), 50, was critically injured.

Another boater was able to rescue Alicia Babb from the water, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. Hall and Babb were recovered in the vicinity of the collision.

The three were returning to the Vilano Boat Ramp after a day of boating, officials said.

"He was my dad. I loved everything about him, everything," Frank Babb said Monday at the site of the crash. "He loved to fish. I wish he got to do more of it."

Pictured, right:
Alicia and Franklin Babb

"He loved this place and he's very well-known around town and loved helping people," said Danielle Rienks, Franklin Babb's daughter. "He would just break his back for people, and you couldn't ask for a better person, you really couldn't."

"He was an amazing father. He raised his children right by himself," added Lynn Rowland, Franklin Babb's sister. "He did a good job, he was a good man, he helped his friends, he lived life."

Babb, his wife, Alicia, and their friend Hall, who went by Chris, were out fishing Sunday and were on their way back.

"We certainly heard and felt the impact of him hitting the dock," said Jack Williams, who lives in Pelican Reef two doors down from the dock the 16-foot motorboat ran into. "The boat actually flew up over the dock and then dumped them all into the water. The fisherman saved the lady's life, there's no question about that."

That nearby fisherman saw the crash, pulled up his anchor, drove over and saved Alicia Babb.

Franklin Babb and their friend Hall, both born on the same day, didn't make it.

Williams ran out to his dock and saw a sneaker floating in the water.

"The next thing I knew, almost underneath my dock there was a body, a man's body in the water that was floating and coming by fairly fast," he said.

Local Boating Accident/Mother Interviewed

This is an interview of a mother who lost her daughter in a local boating accident. Dwayne

Volusia boating accident kills father, pregnant daughter

PONCE INLET -- A pregnant woman who was due to give birth in two weeks and her father were killed Monday in a two-boat crash at Ponce Inlet.

See also, this Orlando Sentinel article on the collision and deaths.

Here is another story stating some of the facts from preliminary investigations.

Woman killed in boating accident on Santa Fe River/ Susie Cruce Brown

PERRY, Fla. -- A woman was killed in a boating accident on the Santa Fe River Sunday. She was killed near the Ellie Ray boat ramp. According to investigators with Florida Fish and Wildlife, Susie Cruce Brown, 49, was headed downstream on the Santa Fe. She was riding a 1996 Yamaha Waverider. She was with a group of three others also riding PWCs. They had launched from Sandy Point Marina. One of the other PWCs collided with Brown when she came to a sudden stop. Brown was thrown into the water. Her friends pulled her from the water and took her to a nearby dock in Branford. Other boaters attempted CPR. Brown was transported to Shands Lake Shore Hospital in Lake City, where she was pronounced dead. The FWC is investigating.

Hospital Releases Two People In Tugboat Explosion

ESCATAWPA, Mississippi - There's new information on an explosion aboard a tug boat that killed two people. It happened Friday afternoon at the VT Halter ship terminal in Esctawpa, Mississippi along the Pascagoula River.Four people were hurt. Company officials are not releasing names, but a friend of one of the injured identifies him as Robert Nettles of Grand Bay. He was being transferred from Singing River Hospital in Pascagoula to USA Medical Center in Mobile, where another victim was taken by LifeFlight earlier in the afternoon. Company officials said the explosion happened aboard a tugboat. William Skinner, the Chief Executive Officer of VT Halter Marine, said, "They were cleaning a tank, getting it prepared to be painted." The family spoke out here.