Waverunner explodes on beach

SAND KEY - A father and son were injured when a rented Waverunner exploded Tuesday afternoon.

“The entire thing was a fireball, it was just a sonic boom that went off,” said witness Susan Whittaker.

Paramedics rushed the men to Morton Plant Hospital in Clearwater around 2:30 p.m., investigators said. The victims have not been identified.

The Waverunner shattered following the blast, snapping the hull from the fiberglass fame on top, though the fuel tank appeared to be intact.

Witnesses said the explosion occurred after the men tested the “kill switch,” which shuts off the engine when a passenger falls in the water.

“It just blew up and it blew the son off the back in an ark,” Whittaker said. “Parts went everywhere and the dad went a different direction.”

After recoiling in fear, Whittaker said beachgoers sprang from their chairs and rushed to the men.

“Everyone just took off running, grabbing them, dragging them to the beach,” she said. First responders took over within minutes, taking the men to the hospital.

An employee of the shop that rented the Waverunner who declined to be identified said one person was injured on the leg, the other in the head.

Pinellas sheriff’s spokesman Jim Bordner described the injuries as “non-life threatening.”

The rental employee said he believes the Yamaha Waverunner has a defect, pointing to a similar incident in 2008 on Clearwater Beach.

“I’m afraid to put people back on them,” he said.