Man scalloping on Crystal River almost loses legs in hit-and-run boat crash

CRYSTAL RIVER, Fla. - It was supposed to be a fun family vacation for the Fourth of July.  Instead, it ended with a man in the hospital who will have to learn how to walk normally again.

Nicole Burko and her boyfriend, Jason Wetmore, were diving for scallops Thursday. They were on vacation near Crystal River from Cocoa Beach with their friends and Wetmore’s kids.

"I hear this really loud engine coming," Burko said. "So, I cling on to the bottom, and then I hear the engine cut to a neutral," she said.

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"This boat was fast, as fast as you could go. The pitch and the roaring of the engine it was nothing like I'd ever experienced. It was right over us and full tilt as fast as that boat," Burko said.

Burko said Wetmore tried to dive under the water when he saw the boat coming, but the boat was too fast. Its propellors severely cut his legs and feet.

"Initially, the pain and the trauma and the blood, he wasn't sure when he looked down, he wasn't sure if he was going to have legs or feet," Burko said. "The way he was screaming, I mean, I think everybody who was there thought that he had lost his legs or, you know, had life-threatening injuries," she said.

 She said the incident left Wetmore, an accomplished diver, with his heel bone severed, his Achilles damaged, and broken bones in his legs and feet.

"It’s shocking, for one, the shock of, you know, this was not even a dangerous trip. This was a kid's trip," she said.

Burko said they had a dive flag up on their boat, two buoys out, and a large children’s play mat in the water. First responders rushed Wetmore to Bayonet Point Hospital, where he’s having surgery Tuesday.

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Florida Fish and Wildlife said the boater left the scene, and they’re looking for the boat and those onboard.

"It was a newer Sea Fox. It was this ultralight blue, almost an off-white blue, that I saw, and it was about 22 to 25 feet. It had, as what was seen by others, was a single dark engine, and it had a white T top," Burko said.

FWC described the person driving the boat as a middle-aged white male with a large build.

"Although he's badly mangled, and this will be a multi-month recovery, he's coming home in a wheelchair. We're building ramps for him right now. I think he's very relieved that it wasn't worse," she said.

And relieved, Burko said, that his kids, who were in the water just an hour before, weren't in the water when it happened.

FWC is asking homeowners with security cameras facing the Crystal River or the Withlacoochee River to check their footage from July 6 for a boat that matches that description. If you have any information, you're asked to call FWC's Wildlife Alert Hotline at 888-404-FWCC (3922) or text 847411 (Tip411) with keyword "FWC" and information about the operator. You could be eligible for a reward.

Wetmore is offering a $25,000 reward for information that leads to a conviction.