A boating accident near Anclote River Park off U.S. 19 near the Pinellas-Pasco county line has left one person dead and four others suffering injuries.

According to the Pasco County Sheriff’s Office two boats collided near the park’s main docks about 2:30 p.m.  Both boats were entering the channel in a light rain near marker No. 18 where the accident occurred.

Eddie Feidt, a lifeguard who witnessed the collision, stated that one boat accelerated and cut off the other one.

“That set off a panic,” Feidt said. The driver of the slower boat tried to turn around and struck the marker, he said.

Then the faster boat, which the Sheriff’s Office described as a 24- to 26-foot Aqua Sport, crashed into mangroves less than 200 yards from the docks.

Feidt was able to get another boater to take him to the crash site, where he was soon joined by paramedics.

According to Feidt the boat in the mangroves was carrying a woman in her late 40s and a man in his early 50s.  The man had no pulse and the woman had a shoulder injury and couldn’t walk.

Authorities stated that the woman was taken to a hospital with non-life threatening injuries and no names have been released yet.