A family’s celebration was cut short when their boat was struck on the Intracoastal Waterway in Delray Beach, sending a father to the hospital and launching a search for the boater who, the family said, fled the scene. The family members, who did not want to be named for safety reasons, said the crash took place on the night of Dec. 7. “[That boater] could have killed us, all of us,” said a family member. A woman who was on the vessel described the frightening moments right after impact. “My husband started screaming, ‘Kill the engines. Kill the engines.’ My fear — and I’m about to cry right now — I thought one of the kids had fallen in the water,” she said. The family said another boater appeared to come out of nowhere and hit them. “I was just like, ‘What happened?’ Like, I didn’t comprehend it at the beginning,” said the daughter of the injured victim. The daughter said she had been standing exactly where the boat hit just minutes before the impact. “All I remember is just yelling, like, ‘Where’s Dad?'” she said. Her father had to be taken to the hospital due to his injuries from the crash. “He had a partial degloving of his pinky finger and a very substantial injury to his right bicep are,” said the victim’s wife. “My husband easily could have easily been killed.” The family said the person who hit them stopped briefly, “We were screaming, ‘No, we’re not OK, we’re not OK,’ and he proceeded to turn around and head south,” said the victim’s wife. The family called the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, who are now investigating. “I’m just so grateful. I know it could have been much more devastating,” said the victim’s wife. Moving forward, she hopes boaters take the waterways just as seriously as they do the roads. “It’s just like being behind the wheel of a car. You have to have awareness,” she said. FWC officers are still searching for the person who hit this boat. The family said they are out roughly $80,000 in damages.