Powerboat crash victim speaks

MIAMI (WSVN) -- A man who was injured during a powerboat racing competition in the Florida Keys last week is speaking exclusively to 7News about the accident that left him in the hospital.

Three people died and two were injured in last week's Key West Super Boat World Championship, a powerboat race.

According to Danny Crank, one of those injured who remains at Miami's Jackson Memorial Hospital, he and another competitor were traveling about 110 mph when their powerboat slammed into a wave on Sunday.

"We were in second place in the overall race, and we hit a freak wave, and it tripped the back of the boat, stuffed the front, probably ended up submarining the boat 20 feet underwater or so," Crank said. "What I'm told is the canopy then imploded in on us. The boat surfaced, thank God."

In the competition's opener last Wednesday, two people lost their lives after their catamaran flipped during the race.

Crank's eyes are now bloodshot, and his left ear is severely cut, but he is alive and grateful. "We were lucky," said Crank. "We have a good rescue team, and I know they are just torn apart over everything this week. They really are, and I just want them to know that there's not a minute that goes by that we weren't thinking about them."

According to Crank, who is from New Jersey, all those in the racing circuit are close knit and like family. "It was a tough weekend, tough weekend, but we're a big family," he said. "We have a reverend, Reverend Jim Black, who comes around all the races. He does, I believe, some NASCAR stuff as well, and he's there with us everyday to try to get us through all of this."

Crank continued, "There's no money to be made in it. We have a business up north. We work on high-performance boats, but I grew up watching this stuff as a kid up in New Jersey."

Although Crank becomes emotional when he thinks about those who lost their lives in this year's competition, he will compete again in the near future. "If you're scared, then you shouldn't be in the boat, because then you hesitate, and it makes things worse," he said. "We all know the risks."

Crank is expected to be released from JMH within the next few days.

The last fatality in the competition occurred back in 1995.

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