A group of teenagers out for a joyride on the water were involved in a horrific tubing accident Tuesday. One 15-year-old is dead and the boat's driver has been cited for causing the crash.
It happened Tuesday afternoon near the Redington Shores Yacht and Tennis Club. Eyewitnesses told us the driver of the boat was swerving so fast inside the inlet, the wake was tossing their boats around.
They watched in horror as the inner tube holding the two girls slammed into a dock.
"It hit three pilings—bam, bam, bam, bam—and the tow rope broke and the boat kept on going," said Ed Small, who saw it all happen.
Deviny Boese was killed after the inner tube she was riding in slammed into the docks.
Small was in his fishing boat and nearly got sideswiped by a boat the Pinellas Sheriff said was driven by 15-year-old Brandon Noah.
"It looked bad to me from the start," Small said. "As close as he came to my boat and swinging through here."
Brandon Noah and his buddy, 15-year-old Noah Epstein, were towing Boese and 15-year-old Sara Dobbs on an inner tube without his parent's permission. They were in a 23-foot twin engine fishing boat the family had just gotten only a couple months ago, according to the sheriff's office.
"And he came around through here and he cut it way too tight, and he swung the boat around by that first boat there, it was an incredible sound," said Small. "One girl slid off the raft before they hit and the other was still on there and when she hit that."
Small said he was relieved when he saw Dobbs moving in the water. Noah jumped in to help the girls.
"I guess this guy just misjudged things and that was the end of it," Small said.
"They just come speeding by our dock and we honk at them all the time," said Diane Alexander, who lives nearby.
Alexander said neighbors have called the sheriff's office plenty of times, but thrill riders always disappear before deputies get there.
"It's an accident waiting to happen," said Alexander. "They come around the corner from the Intercoastal, they never slow down."
"It's crazy, scary," said Jessica Stacy. "I didn't ever think it would happen."
Stacy and Alaina McGuire are friends with Noah and were stunned when they'd heard what had happened.
Both agreed, this may be a wake-up call for teens.
"I think they'll slow down and practice safe boating more," McGuire said.
Dobbs was transported to All Children's Hospital. We're told she had cuts to her ankles, otherwise she is okay. Brandon Noah was cited twice, for reckless operation of a vessel resulting in a fatality and for no boater identification.
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