1 dead in mass casualty event after boat crashes into Clearwater Ferry in Florida
FierceAbin via Getty Images
(CLEARWATER, FL) — One person was killed and multiple people were injured when a boat struck the Clearwater Ferry in Clearwater, Florida, on Sunday evening.
All of the injured individuals were people on the ferry, according to the Clearwater Police Department.
There were 45 people aboard the ferry, including two crew members, when it was hit by a passing boat, police said.
“It’s been declared a mass casualty incident by the fire department due to the number of injuries. All local hospitals have been notified,” Clearwater PD wrote in a post on X on Sunday night.
“Multiple trauma alerts have been called with helicopters transporting two of the more seriously injured,” the post continued.
The incident took place near the Memorial Causeway Bridge in Clearwater. Coast Guard Sector St. Petersburg was notified at approximately 8:40 p.m., the Seventh Coast Guard District wrote on X.
The boat that struck the ferry fled the scene, Clearwater PD said in a social media post on Sunday night.
After the crash, the ferry came to rest on a sand bar just south of the bridge. First responders and emergency personnel were then able to remove “all patients and passengers” from the ferry, police said.
“We were just enjoying the ride, and then all of a sudden we hear the first mate yelling, ‘Hey, hey, hey,'” one passenger told ABC affiliate WFTS in Tampa.
“And then we looked back behind us and this big yacht just came through the boat,” said the passenger, who was riding the ferry with his two kids and his wife, who is 31 weeks pregnant with the couple’s third child.
The Coast Guard says there were six people on board the recreational boat, which left the scene. Authorities said it was later found by a responding agency.
“The boat that fled the scene has been identified by another law enforcement agency,” Clearwater PD said. However, further details about the second vessel involved in the incident have not yet been made available.
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission will be taking the lead on the crash investigation, police said.
(NEW YORK) — The Trump administration has extended the deadline it gave New York City to end its congestion pricing program, the first of its kind in the nation, as New York officials vowed to keep the tolls on.
The Federal Highway Administration initially instructed the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to stop collecting tolls by this Friday to allow for an “orderly cessation.”
A day before that deadline, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced on social media that the Department of Transportation is granting New York a “30-day extension as discussions continue.”
“Know that the billions of dollars the federal government sends to New York are not a blank check. Continued noncompliance will not be taken lightly,” he said Thursday.
Duffy also warned New York Gov. Kathy Hochul that President Donald Trump and the federal government are “putting New York on notice.”
“Your refusal to end cordon pricing and your open disrespect towards the federal government is unacceptable,” he said.
In response, Hochul highlighted her statement on social media after the U.S. Department of Transportation pulled federal approval of the congestion pricing plan last month, in which she said, “The cameras are staying on.”
The approval was pulled on Feb. 19 following a review requested by Trump. Duffy said at the time that the “scope of this pilot project as approved exceeds the authority authorized by Congress” under the Federal Highway Administration’s Value Pricing Pilot Program while calling it “backwards and unfair.”
The MTA has said it is challenging the Trump administration’s reversal in federal court, seeking a declaratory judgment that the DOT’s move is not proper. Hochul and MTA Chair and CEO Janno Lieber have said they will not turn off the tolls without a court order.
Lieber reiterated that stance during remarks at an unrelated press briefing on Tuesday while contending that this is “not a test of wills” but normal litigation procedure.
“We’re just proceeding with the dispute as you would normally in any litigation setting,” he said. “This is not a test of wills. It’s just the reality of when you have a dispute, things don’t change until a court orders it, and that has not yet taken place.”
“We don’t expect it will, because we’re on pretty strong legal footing,” he added.
Lieber said the federal government has not yet responded to the MTA’s initial complaint, and that there is still more time for them to do so.
“The good news is that the program, which has had such amazing benefits for New Yorkers — faster travel, cleaner air, fewer crashes, less honking, quieter, better environment for all, and also great economic benefits — all that is going to continue,” Lieber said.
“The program is underway now for 10 weeks, and it’s been successful by every standard,” he continued. “And it’s the right thing to do for New York to continue it.”
The congestion pricing plan, which launched on Jan. 5, charges passenger vehicles $9 to access Manhattan below 60th Street during peak hours as part of an effort to ease congestion and raise funds for the city’s public transit system. During peak hours, small trucks and charter buses are charged $14.40 and large trucks and tour buses pay $21.60.
The toll generated nearly $50 million in revenue in its first month and is on track to generate $500 million in net revenue by the end of this year, as initially projected, the MTA said.
(MINNESOTA) — A statue of famed novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald was stolen from outside a Minnesota building where he once attended school, police said.
The statue, which had been located outside the Academy Professional Building in Saint Paul, depicted a young Fitzgerald seated with a couple of books in his lap.
Now all that remains of the statue of “The Great Gatsby” author is part of his right hand.
Police said the statue is believed to have been cut free. Its owner, Ed Conley, told ABC Twin Cities affiliate KSTP a cutting torch is believed to have been used to free the statue. The bolts were also cut, he said.
“Disappointed for sure,” Conley, the founder of the real estate company CCI Properties, told the station.
The statue, which was located on the steps to the Academy Professional Building, was last known to be there on Feb. 3 and was reported missing four days later, police said.
The building was once home to the St. Paul Academy, which Fitzgerald attended from 1908 to 1911 as a teen. Conley said Fitzgerald wrote for the school paper and participated in plays while he attended the school.
He commissioned local artist Aaron Dysart to make the statue of the author nearly 20 years ago when he bought the building, which now houses office spaces.
“It was really fun to just highlight that history,” Conley told KSTP.
The statue of the author has been a fixture on various tours in the city, Conley said.
It would cost around $40,000 to replace the bronze statue, Conley told KSTP, estimating the metal could fetch several hundred dollars at a scrap yard.
Conley told KSTP he hopes to “resurrect” the statue and “bring it back to the community and have people enjoy it again.”
The investigation into the theft remains ongoing and there are no updates on any suspects or arrests, a Saint Paul Police Department spokesperson told ABC News on Wednesday.
Police asked anyone with information or who “recalls seeing suspicious activity” outside the building between Feb. 3 and 7 to call 651-291-1111.
(NEW YORK) — Attorney General Pam Bondi called the recent spate of arson attacks and vandalism against Tesla vehicles “nothing short of domestic terrorism” and promised harsh punishments for perpetrators if they are caught.
The White House also weighed in on the recent attacks Wednesday, with Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt calling the vandalisms “despicable.”
“Democrats were big supporters of Tesla and of electric vehicles until Elon Musk decided to vote for Donald Trump. So we would like Democrats to also come out and condemn this heinous violence that we have seen,” Leavitt said.
The statements from Bondi and Leavitt came after the latest incident in which five Tesla vehicles were damaged when a fire was started at a Tesla Collision Center in Las Vegas on Tuesday morning. That was the latest in a wave of incidents aimed at the electric vehicle company, according to the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department.
“This was a targeted attack against a Tesla facility,” said Dori Koren, assistant sheriff for the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department.
Along with the burning vehicles, officials said the word “RESIST” was spray-painted across the doors of the facility and three rounds of shots were fired at the additional Teslas. The suspect approached the business wearing black clothing and is believed to have used Molotov cocktails and a firearm to conduct his attack, police said.
Officials received notice that an individual had “set several vehicles on fire in the parking lot and caused damage to the property.”
Police and the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force are investigating this incident, which they believe was an isolated attack. Authorities are still searching for a suspect.
Two Tesla Cybertrucks also caught on fire at a dealership in Kansas City, Missouri, on Monday evening, according to the Kansas City Police Department.
Tesla vehicles, dealerships and charging stations have been vandalized, suffered arson and faced protests in recent weeks since the company’s CEO Elon Musk began his work at the White House spearheading the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE.
In the statement Tuesday, Bondi said, “The swarm of violent attacks on Tesla property is nothing short of domestic terrorism.” In some of the cases, she said the Justice Department is charging perpetrators with crimes that carry five-year mandatory minimum sentences.
“We will continue investigations that impose severe consequences on those involved in these attacks, including those operating behind the scenes to coordinate and fund these crimes,” she said in the statement.
In the Kansas incident, a police officer in the area spotted smoke coming from one Cybertruck at a Tesla dealership on State Line Road shortly before midnight. The officer attempted to put out the flames using a fire extinguisher, but the fire spread to a second Cybertruck parked next to the original one, police said.
The Kansas City Fire Department ordered the bomb and arson unit to assist on the scene, the fire department said. Officials were able to put out the flames and the vehicles were “covered with a fire blanket to prevent reignition,” the fire department said.
“The circumstances are under investigation but preliminarily the fire is being investigated for the potential of being an arson,” police said in a statement on Monday.
There have been no arrests made for this incident, police said. The FBI is assisting the Kansas City Police Department in this investigation.
This follows a spree of similar incidents that have occurred across the country in the last few weeks.
Last week, “more than a dozen” shots were fired at a Tesla dealership in Tigard, Oregon, according to Kelsey Anderson, the public information officer at the Tigard Police Department.
Additionally, three Teslas were vandalized in Dedham, Massachusetts on March 11, according to the Dedham Police Department. Officials said “words had been spray-painted” on two Tesla Cybertrucks, with all four tires of the trucks and a Tesla Model S being “reportedly damaged.”
Earlier this month, a Tesla charging station was targeted in South Carolina, where an individual spray-painted an expletive directed at President Trump along with “LONG LIVE UKRAINE” on the ground in red paint and threw homemade Molotov cocktails at the station, according to the North Charleston Police Department.
Federal ATF agents arrested 24-year-old Daniel Clarke-Pounder in that incident, charging him with arson of property in interstate commerce.
During a search of his apartment, agents said they found a purple composition notebook that contained a three-page handwritten statement which asserted anti-government beliefs and statements opposed to DOGE.
“The statement made mention of sending a message based on these beliefs and was signed with the initials ‘DC,'” court records said.
Protests against the company have also occurred at dealerships nationwide. Illinois State Treasurer Michael Frerichs told ABC News the demonstrations and the company’s plummeting stocks — which have tumbled nearly 48% this year — can all “be tied to [Musk’s] time at DOGE.”
“It has been a distraction for the company and it’s been a problem for the brand,” Frerichs said.
In recent weeks, four top officers at the company have sold off $100 million in stock, according to filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
Musk, the owner of X, said on Monday that his companies “make great products that people love and I’ve never physically hurt anyone, so why the hate and violence against me?”
“Because I am a deadly threat to the woke mind parasite and the humans it controls,” Musk said on X.
Musk has also reposted reactions that criticized previous Tesla attacks, including one that said those responsible for the Las Vegas attack are “terrorists and should be treated accordingly.”
A spokesperson for Tesla did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment.
ABC News’ Jack Moore and Aaron Katersky contributed to this report.
