Man injured in boating accident near Skyway is on USF faculty

ST. PETERSBURG — The 55-year-old man injured when he was trapped between a bounding boat and a large piling near the Sunshine Skyway on Monday is a faculty member at the University of South Florida.

The man's family asked that his name not be released. He was taken to Bayfront Medical Center in critical condition and underwent surgery, according to St. Petersburg Fire Rescue Lt. Joel Granata.

It's not clear for whom he was working at the time of the incident.

Authorities first said he was maintaining instruments under the bridge for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Although he has previously worked as a NOAA contractor on instruments mounted on large pilings near the Skyway, he was not working for the agency at the time of the accident, said NOAA spokesman Scott Smullen.

The oceanographic instruments, Smullen said, are actually owned by the Greater Tampa Bay Marine Advisory Council and are not funded by the NOAA.

USF spokeswoman Lara Wade declined to say where at USF the injured man works, but said he was working for the NOAA, not USF.

"We've been back and forth with NOAA on this," Wade said. "He was not working on behalf of USF when he was injured."

About 11:15 a.m. Monday, the man jumped atop a large piling, known as a dolphin, that protects the bridge from wayward ships. He tried to keep his 28-foot boat from smashing into the structure from a large wake created by a passing tanker. He fell into the water and was pinned between the boat and the piling until others in the boat pulled him aboard.