Florida sheriff deputy jumps onto runaway boat going over 40 mph off coast, stops it from driving

A Florida deputy sheriff jumped onto a runaway boat going over 40 mph to stop it after its driver fell off, the Pinellas County Sheriff's office said in a Facebook post.

The incident — which was captured on body camera footage — showed the two deputies pulling up alongside the speeding vessel. Deputy Constant and Deputy Fernandes, both of the Marine and Environmental Lands Unit, had responded to a July 30 call to assist the U.S. Coast Guard with a runaway vessel. 

The boat was being driven by a man who fell into the water before being rescued by a good Samaritan, the sheriff's office said. The Coast Guard tried using deploy prop fowling devices to stop the boat but were unsuccessful, according to the sheriff's office. 

But Deputies Constant and Fernandes were up to the task. 

The video footage shows Constant catching up to the runaway boat by matching its speed of about 41 mph and Fernandes leaping aboard the boat and immediately taking control.

"And yes Deputy Fernandes does his own stunts," the sheriff's office quipped in the social media post.

The deputies then tied the boat to theirs, the video showed. 

"If you don't want this to happen to you... always connect your kill switch lanyard," the sheriff's office captioned the clip playing over Van Halen's song "Jump." 

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