\n\t\t\t\t\t\tNeal Kirby, the lone survivor of a deadly boat crash on the Caloosahatchee River near the Cape Coral Yacht Club, is out of the ICU but is struggling mentally with the loss of his friends. He is recovering from six broken ribs, a shattered pelvis, and severe lung damage.”Neal and I, we became friends from hanging out at a sports bar, oddly enough,” said Jeremy Zielinski, an old friend of Kirby’s. He described Kirby as “the guy that’s always there” and someone who loves boating. “When I think of Neal, I just constantly think of someone who really loves the passion going out and boating,” he said. The crash involved a 39-foot MTI speedboat that flipped over, sending Kirby and his three friends into the water. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission noted that wind might have been a factor in the crash. “One of the biggest things with boaters on the water is making sure to keep an eye on the weather conditions,” said Riley Perkofski with the United States Coast Guard. Tragically, Kirby’s friends Craig Millett, Brenna Millett, and Rebecca Knight died in the accident. They were part of the nonprofit Family Initiative, which advocates for the autism community. Family Initiative put a statement saying: Rebecca Knight and Brenna and Craig Millett were passionate champions of Family Initiative and fierce advocates for the autism community.Rebecca\u2019s determination and joyful laugh, Brenna\u2019s warm smile and encouraging words, and Craig\u2019s immense heart and generosity\u2014especially toward Kolby\u2014touched us deeply.Zielinski expressed his support for Kirby’s family.”I want to make sure that they’re aware that we’re all here, praying, hoping, thinking about him,” he said. The FWC is investigating the crash, with the boat currently held at an evidence facility in Tampa, but the cause remains unknown.DOWNLOAD\u202fthe free\u202fGulf Coast News app\u202ffor your latest news and alerts on breaking news, weather, sports, entertainment, and more on your phone or tablet. And check out the Very Local Gulf Coast app to stream news, entertainment and original programming on your TV.\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\tCAPE CORAL, Fla. \u2014 \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Neal Kirby, the lone survivor of a deadly boat crash on the Caloosahatchee River near the Cape Coral Yacht Club, is out of the ICU but is struggling mentally with the loss of his friends. <\/p>\n
He is recovering from six broken ribs, a shattered pelvis, and severe lung damage.<\/p>\n
“Neal and I, we became friends from hanging out at a sports bar, oddly enough,” said Jeremy Zielinski, an old friend of Kirby’s. <\/p>\n
He described Kirby as “the guy that’s always there” and someone who loves boating. <\/p>\n
“When I think of Neal, I just constantly think of someone who really loves the passion going out and boating,” he said. <\/p>\n
The crash involved a 39-foot MTI speedboat that flipped over, sending Kirby and his three friends into the water<\/a>. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission noted that wind might have been a factor in the crash. <\/p>\n “One of the biggest things with boaters on the water is making sure to keep an eye on the weather conditions,” said Riley Perkofski with the United States Coast Guard. <\/p>\n Tragically, Kirby’s friends Craig Millett, Brenna Millett, and Rebecca Knight died in the accident. <\/p>\n They were part of the nonprofit Family Initiative, which advocates for the autism community. <\/p>\n Family Initiative put a statement saying: <\/p>\n Rebecca Knight and Brenna and Craig Millett were passionate champions of Family Initiative and fierce advocates for the autism community.<\/p>\n Rebecca\u2019s determination and joyful laugh, Brenna\u2019s warm smile and encouraging words, and Craig\u2019s immense heart and generosity\u2014especially toward Kolby\u2014touched us deeply.<\/p>\n Zielinski expressed his support for Kirby’s family.<\/p>\n “I want to make sure that they’re aware that we’re all here, praying, hoping, thinking about him,” he said. <\/p>\n The FWC is investigating the crash, with the boat currently held at an evidence facility in Tampa, but the cause remains unknown.<\/p>\n DOWNLOAD\u202fthe free\u202fGulf Coast News app<\/a>\u202ffor your latest news and alerts on breaking news, weather, sports, entertainment, and more on your phone or tablet. And check out the Very Local Gulf Coast app<\/a> to stream news, entertainment and original programming on your TV.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Neal Kirby, the lone survivor of a deadly boat crash on the Caloosahatchee River near the Cape Coral…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":70418,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[40681,38988,209,211,210,1776,104,13958,40680,40682,213,39414,40679,39971,24187,724,15785,17241],"class_list":["post-70417","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cape-coral","tag-autism-community","tag-brenna-millett","tag-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral-headlines","tag-cape-coral-news","tag-crash","tag-entertainment","tag-friend","tag-friend-craig-millett","tag-joyful-laugh","tag-late-news","tag-neal-kirby","tag-nonprofit-family-initiative","tag-rebecca-knight","tag-recovery","tag-road","tag-survivor","tag-weather-condition"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70417","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70417"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70417\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70418"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70417"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70417"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70417"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}