JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A pontoon boat that fell off its trailer made waves for drivers on the west beltway of Interstate 295 Thursday morning.
The man who purchased the boat said he was pulling it on a trailer from Callahan at about 8:30 a.m. when he looked in his rearview mirror and saw the axles on the trailer break off just north of Commonwealth Avenue.
"I was going about 55 miles per hour, and as I was coming up the overpass, one of the axles failed," driver Lee Bowman said.
Bowman said he went to pick up the boat he had just purchased Thursday morning, and he didn't get very far before things got a little rocky.
"When the axle failed, it made connection with the other axle, and they both came off from underneath the trailer," Lee Bowman said "Probably five to seven miles from where I picked it up."
The trailer broke and then his newly purchased pontoon boat was coasting in the middle of I-295 northbound at the Commonwealth Avenue overpass.
No one was hurt, but it did cause some traffic backups until Lee Bowman was able to use his truck to drag the boat and trailer off the overpass, and to the side of the road.
"Well, we've been boating a lot of years and had a lot of different situations," Lee Bowman's father, Henry Bowman, said.
When Henry Bowman heard about the problem, he rushed over to help. He said things like this happen all the time, and he can relate.
"I've lost a boat before on a trailer," Henry Bowman said. "I'm used to this."
It took more than an hour and two tow trucks to get the boat and trailer off the road.
"I checked the tires. I looked over the trailer. I looked over the boat and sometimes these things happen," Lee Bowman said. "There's no way to tell until it does."
If you're planning to pull a boat this summer, the Department of Motor Vehicles has some suggestions to help avoid problems:
- Make sure the trailer is safely connected to the hitch.
- Check the brake lights and make sure they're working properly.
- If you are unsure of the safety of the trailer, contact a professional to inspect it, like your boat dealership, the DMV or even Florida Highway Patrol.
- And if you use your vehicle to pull trailers, you may want to consider purchasing trailer insurance to cover any damages that may occur while you're on the road.
For more on registering a trailer or purchasing trailer insurance, go to www.dmv.org.