One dead and multiple injured after Florida boat crashes into ferry in ‘mass casualty incident’

One person was killed and several others were injured after a boat plowed into a ferry near Clearwater’s Memorial Causeway Bridge in Florida on Sunday night.

There were 45 people on board the ferry when the crash occurred in Clearwater around 8.30 p.m. local time.

The boat fled the scene, but authorities from a partnering law enforcement agency have since tracked it down, the Tampa Bay Times reports. The driver is yet to be named by local authorities.

Clearwater Police Department confirmed that one passenger had died on Sunday night. Of the injuries, six were listed as trauma alerts and two had to be taken to the Baycare Health hospital by helicopter.

Law enforcement investigate the wreckage of a Clearwater Ferry after a boat crashed into the ferry, causing multiple injuries near the Clearwater Memorial Causeway Bridge, on Sunday, 27 April 2025, in Clearwater, Florida (AP)

Florida officers declared a “mass casualty event” due to the number of injuries sustained.

All ferry passengers, including two crew members, were taken off the vessel as it sat on a sandbar just south of the Memorial Causeway bridge, said Rob Shaw with the City of Clearwater to the Bay Times.

The U.S. Coast Guard and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission are now leading the investigation.

Brenda Alvarez, who is 31 weeks pregnant, was on the ferry at the time with her three and one-year-old. Speaking with ABC Action News, she said: “We are actually going to go to the hospital right now to get checked because I'm a little worried I haven't felt the baby move, it's very scary.” Alvarez said she fell between two seats on board when the ferry and boat collided.

First responders gather on a beach near where a boat crashed into the ferry causing multiple injuries near the Clearwater Memorial Causeway Bridge, on Sunday, 27 April 2025, in Clearwater, Florida (AP)

“My whole body hurts right now,” she said. “We just wanted to get to our cars and get home. We never, you never expect anything to happen, we can't understand how fast they were going like how that was even logically possible that they hit and were able to get off like that we have a three-year-old and one-year-old with us, and I'm pregnant and I don't know, it's horrible.

“It shattered, it shattered the whole back of the boat, left a huge dent.”

The incident occurred at the end of the 17-day Sugar Sand Festival on Sunday night, when many festival-goers were using the ferry to travel back and forth, media reports noted.

According to an ABC News affiliate, Clearwater Mayor Bruce Rector has reportedly confirmed that the boat involved in the crash was privately owned.