Antioch family has long road to recovery following Florida airboat crash

East Bay resident David Tolson, 39, and his family were hoping for a day of adventure and excitement exploring the Everglades in South Florida on Dec. 13 while in the state for a youth football event.

Instead, Tolson was launched off the deck of an airboat in Florida and landed in alligator-infested waters, breaking his arm and five ribs, when the vessel collided with another airboat.

David Tolson, his wife Pershonda Tolson, 41, and their children had been riding the airboat in Ochopee, Fla. with other parents and children from their son’s Bay Area youth football team Dec. 13 when the vessels collided, injuring at least 24 people and sending 16 to the hospital.

“As a father, protective instincts kicked in, and you want to do everything you can to help everyone, especially your own family,” Tolson said at a press conference Friday. “It was very, very scary – just not knowing the depths of the severity of the incident.”

Miguel Dominguez, an Atlanta-based lawyer representing some of those injured, said that more injuries from the crash were still surfacing a week later as parents who were hospitalized were able to take their children to receive more detailed medical examinations.

Dominguez and another attorney, Louis DeFreitas, are conducting their own investigation into the incident as well as cooperating with the state’s investigation through the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, they said. DeFreitas added that there was no information that suggests that the company involved — Wooten’s Everglades Airboat Tours — has a poor record of service, but they do believe that “serious negligence was involved.”

“We will take the appropriate steps to make sure that justice in this case is served on behalf of all of our clients, and that they are fairly and justly compensated for that which they have endured, lost or has been taken from them, and we look forward to moving forward in trying to prosecute our clients’ cases,” DeFreitas said.

Dominguez said that they are not yet sharing minute-by-minute details of the incident because it is early in their investigation but added that it was “very traumatic for everyone involved.”

David Tolson and his family, who live in Antioch, had been attending a football and cheer event in Naples, Fla. Looking for an activity to do after the tournament, they decided to take an airboat tour of the Everglades.

“We were all excited to go out and enjoy this unique experience,” he said. “The day started out great – the kids were happy, we were all happy.”

“At the blink of an eye, tragedy struck and derailed that adventure,” Tolson added.

After the boats collided head-on, Tolson found himself in the water alongside many young children, including his own. His wife, who sustained a concussion, multiple fractures and “other serious injuries,” according to a press release, was also thrown into the water.

“To try to get to my family was a challenge, and once I did get to them, it became that much more challenging – this thing that I had to see, and that knowing that my children had to witness,” Tolson said. “It was saddening. It was very physically painful, emotionally painful.”

Tolson was also responsible for his two young nephews because his brother was on another boat not involved in the crash, he said. His three-year-old nephew sustained a large gash on his head that needed 30 staples to close, according to the press release.

“If I could sum it up, I felt helpless, because my job as their father and as her husband and as the uncle that was present for my nephews in the absence of my brother at that moment, I couldn’t prevent this,” Tolson said. “I couldn’t help them. I was helpless. And any father would probably tell you that feeling is probably one of the worst feelings you can feel as a man – to not be able to protect your family. That was challenging, to say the least.”

The two boats that collided were both operated by the same company. One boat was a 24-foot Alumitech airboat with 13 passengers and an operator, and the other was a 25-foot airboat with 20 passengers and an operator, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission previously said in a statement.

Wooten’s Everglades Airboat Tours said in a statement Dec. 13 that it is cooperating with the investigations of the commission and the sheriff’s office.

“All of us at Wooten’s offer our sincere sympathies to everyone involved, and wish them a speedy recovery,” the statement said.

Tolson said that, because of the accident, there are “significant” changes to his family’s lives with a “long road ahead.” These changes began just one day after the accident: his son’s birthday.

“We had to sing our son ‘Happy Birthday’ via … Facetime from hospital beds,” Tolson said. “That broke my heart.”

The Tolson family will spend the holidays with family in Atlanta because Pershonda Tolson’s injuries are still too severe for her to board a cross-county flight, Tolson said.

Tolson added that they have an “amazing support system” that is helping them navigate the incident.

“I don’t know how to navigate this, but what I do know is that I will do it,” he said. “We will figure it out because that’s it – life has to continue, and life is worth living, and we are still living by the grace of God. So I don’t know how we’re going to navigate this, but I know we will.”