Fall River Fire Department releases details of boat crash and rescue in the Taunton River

The Fall River Fire Department has released details of the boat crash and rescue in the Taunton River Friday night.

According to District Fire Chief Neil Furtado, at approximately 9:45 p.m., E-2 was dispatched to a report of a boat accident on shore in the area of New Street.

Furtado began to organize the response, launch, and search the coast North of Veterans Memorial Bridge once the call came in.

Engine 2, Rescue 4 and Squad 11 searched the area North of New Street including O’Connell boats property and adjacent side streets that lead to rivers edge. Furtado discovered the New Street gate that would lead to the river’s edge was locked and called for Engine 2 for force entry as the Knox box had no keys or combination for the locks on the gate.

Marine 1, now with Rescue on board, radioed that they located the boat accident and transmitted that they had a major accident with structural damage to a dock that the boat hit. Marine 1 officer A/LT Dumaine relayed that cutting tools may be needed for patient removal. At this point Furtado called for response and staging on North Main and New Street for tools if needed. Furtado called for a spotlight towards the shore to give a location of the crash which allowed crews to breach the gate to get to the accident scene.

With coordination help by Captain Parent, Marine 1 recovered one patient and began treatment while going back to shore for transport to Rhode Island hospital. Engine 12 was called to assist at Heritage State Park and drive the Rescue.

Marine 1 reported that two people were on the boat at the time of the crash and that one was unaccounted for. At this point, Furtado noticed some blood on the road leading to the dock. At almost that exact moment, personnel located patient 2 as a man with life threatening leg injuries and was also transported to Rhode Island Hospital.

Furtado was told that patient 2 stated that there was a 3rd party on the boat during the accident and ordered search crews and a lighting crew.

After patient 2 was transported to the hospital, crews were ordered to walk the shoreline North and South of the dock area and report any findings. Assets from the Narragansett Task Force were deployed along with the US Coast Guard and a grid search started along with sonar search. State Police arrived as well as state DA’s Office to photograph the accident scene. Environmental Police arrived to reconstruct the boat accident.

All searches turned up negative regarding a 3rd person. State Police at Rhode Island Hospital eventually confirmed that there were only 2 people on board as patient 2 admitted he was confused about the incident and patient 1 was driving and said 100% that there were only he and patient 2 on board.

All FRFD units cleared the scene around 2:00 a.m.