Busy Memorial Day, but traffic just under last year on weekend

On Saturday, May 24, during the Boca H2O Festival, a teenage boy was struck by a boat propeller, breaking his leg. 

The festival is held in the water off the sandbar between Gasparilla Island and Placida. Attendees have estimated on social media that there were around 1,800 boats at the event this year. 

Around midday, a boat with about a dozen teenagers started their engine without realizing a member of their party was back by the propeller. Both bones in his lower leg were broken by the propeller.

 It took some time for Englewood paramedics to navigate through the thousands of boats to reach him, but once they did, they got a tourniquet on his injured leg before transporting him to Sarasota Memorial Hospital. Saturday there was also an MCL tear from someone jumping off a boat. 

This event operates without any state, local or federal permits. Both Charlotte and Lee County Sheriffs’ offices send patrol out to monitor the event, including marine patrol. Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission also had a boat out on Saturday.

The Boca Grande Fire Department had a jet ski and a boat on the water as well, Chief C.W. Blosser said. 

“We use our resources,” Blosser said, “but we can’t not do that because something will happen, and we’ll be caught short-handed.”

Lt. Mike Sawicki of the Lee County Sheriff’s office said that in general, this year went more smoothly than last year in terms of incidents and parking violations. “The parking was way worse last year,” Sawicki said. “We had far fewer parking violations this year, and less problems in general.”

The Gasparilla Island Bridge Authority numbers this year were on par with Memorial Day weekend 2024. Last year there were a total of 15,383 cars that crossed the toll Friday through Monday on Memorial Day weekend. This past weekend there was a total of 15,247, according to GIBA Executive Director Kathy Banson.

Like last year, the Bridge Authority hired an off-duty Charlotte County Sheriff’s officer to patrol the causeway on Saturday from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. to ensure that there was no trespassing or parking on the causeway, according to an email from Banson.

“Nothing major was reported back to me, sounds like most of the chaos remained on water,” Banson wrote.

Bridge Traffic Down

2025

2024