Aide To Gov. Rick Scott Dies In Florida Keys Boat Crash

WLRN Public Media | By David Goodhue,

MARY ELLEN KLAS

Published April 9, 2018 at 1:33 PM EDT

Other boaters performed cardiopulmonary resusciation on Jereima Bustamante until they reached the docks at Whale Harbor in Islamorada.

An aide to Gov. Rick Scott died Sunday night after the boat on which she was a passenger crashed into mangrove branches lining a narrow channel in Islamorada.

Jereima Bustamante, 33, suffered blunt force trauma and died at Mariners Hospital in Tavernier, said Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission Officer Bobby Dube. She was a passenger on an 18-foot Maverick skiff operated by Eddy Briel, 39, that was traveling in a cut-through area on the bay side of Whale Harbor Channel around 6:15 p.m.

For reasons still under investigation, the vessel veered off the channel and into the mangroves, Dube said. Also on the Maverick were Anthony Bustamante, 37, and Geydis Briel, 32, who were injured in the crash, as was Eddy Briel. Dube said the extent of their injuries was not immediately known.

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