A New York dad has been charged with drunkenly racing a jet ski after crashing and seriously injuring two kids in Florida, according to cops.
Daniel Patrick Grubert, from Piermont in Rockland County, was racing someone else on a rented Yamaha WaveRunner in Madeira Beach near St. Petersburg on Sunday when he looked away from where he was going, according to the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office.
When he realized he was about to crash, he jumped off — leaving it to smash into another jet ski being driven by a 45-year-old man with two kids, ages 7 and 8, on board, police said.
The two children were launched from the jet ski and rescued from the water by the Madeira Beach Fire Department. They were rushed to a local hospital — one with life-threatening injuries and the other with non-life-threatening injuries.
Grubert showed signs of impairment and “performed poorly” on field sobriety tests, according to the sheriff’s office.
He was arrested and charged with two counts of boating under the influence causing serious bodily injury and one count of reckless operation of a vessel.
He was booked at the Pinellas County Jail and released on Tuesday morning on a combined $100,500 bond, jail records show.
The driver of the hit jet ski — Walter Wodzien, 45 — was also thrown off but not hurt, cops said.
