A friend identified Russ Kerr as the St. John man injured Friday when his dinghy was hit by a Caneel Bay Resort ferry.
Kerr was airlifted to Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami, where hospital staff said he was a patient in the trauma and intensive care unit.
The nurse on duty at that unit said she was not allowed to give out patient information. V.I. National Park Superintendent Mark Hardgrove said Friday that Kerr had suffered a broken arm and broken ribs.
Kerr, a Springfield, Mo., native, is the owner of St. John Concierge Service. The company, a one-person operation, operates out of a kiosk across from the U.S. Postal Service facility in Cruz Bay.
A Police Department press release put Kerr’s age at 61, but in a 2007 interview with the Source he gave his age as 50, making him 54 at present..
Police said the captain of the Caneel Bay ferry said he left the Caneel Bay shipyard, located in an arm of Cruz Bay Harbor, and piloted the vessel toward Caneel Bay Resort when he heard a loud noise. Looking around, he noticed the ferry had collided with a 12-foot dinghy, and there was an injured man aboard. The dinghy was towed to shore by another small vessel in the area.
Hardgrove said Friday said the boat was still on a “plane,” meaning that it was traveling at a high rate of speed, when it hit the dinghy. He put the time at around 6 a.m.
Caneel Bay Resort manager Nikolay Hotze said Friday the passengers on board the ferry and the boat were all fine. He identified the ferry as the Mary II.
The U.S. Coast Guard could not be reached for further information.
