BOYNTON BEACH, Fla. — Boynton Beach police officers came to the rescue of a man and woman after the WaveRunner on which they were riding crashed into a seawall earlier this month.
Officer Darin Hederian was on patrol in the Intracoastal Waterway on Jan. 2 when he got a call about a WaveRunner accident in the area.
When Hederian arrived, he saw the victims floating face down in the water.
"I thought that they were deceased," he told reporters Wednesday outside the Boynton Beach Police Department.
Officer Gregg Koch soon arrived and helped Hederian pull the victims onto the police boat.
Body-camera video released Wednesday shows other officers assisting Hederian and Koch as the boat pulled up to the dock.
Koch said the couple had just rented the personal watercraft and had only been riding it for less than five minutes from when they left the dock until when they crashed.
Hederian and Koch said accidents like these are common, especially this time of year when people from out of state travel to South Florida to enjoy the sunshine and warmer climate.
"My advice to the people who are actually renting them is spend a little more time with the education process while they're on the dock," Koch said.
Both victims survived. The man is still recovering in a hospital, while the woman is resting at home. Police said neither recall the crash.
The officers agreed that the life jackets kept the victims alive.
"They probably would have sank and the result would not have been the same," Koch said.