Two tourists die in game of chicken with tour boat
A game of chicken on the water proved deadly on Saturday, when two middle-aged tourists on a rented water scooter lost their race with a tour boat near Clearwater, Florida.
Investigators with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission have not officially determined what caused the scooter to crash smack into the middle of a double-deck tour boat on a dolphin-sighting cruise.
But passengers said the water scooter was trying to outrun the boat in a game of chicken, the Tampa Bay Times reported.
The tour boat’s captain tried to cut the engine to avoid a crash, but it was too late.
No one on the tour boat, from the Tropics Boat Tours out of Clearwater, was injured.
The company canceled all tours on Sunday out of respect to the deceased.
The couple, Ramana Gadiraju, 50, and Shubhada Kulkarni, 49, from Lower Gwynedd, Pa., leave behind a son.
Cheryl
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