Boat crashes into Sugarloaf Key bridge, woman hospitalized in Keys channel

A boat slammed into the Harris Gap Channel Bridge on Sugarloaf Key Sunday afternoon, sending one woman to the hospital and drawing the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission into a new crash investigation in the Lower Keys. Two people were aboard when the vessel struck the bridge around 3:20 p.m.

The collision happened at Harris Gap Channel Bridge on U.S. 1 at Sugarloaf Key mile marker 17.5, a narrow crossing near the north end of the island. Bridge data list the span as built in 1982, and traffic figures show it carried an average of 16,900 vehicles a day in 2022, including 9% truck traffic, with volume projected to rise to 29,322 by 2042.

The Monroe County Sheriff’s Office said the woman was taken for medical care after the crash. The state wildlife commission opened the investigation, which is standard for marine collisions in state waters and around navigable channels.

The bridge sits in one of the Keys’ busiest shared corridors, where U.S. 1 traffic, bridge crossings and boat traffic come together in a short stretch of water. Local bridge references describe Harris Gap Channel Bridge as the shortest of the 42 bridges on the Overseas Highway, a detail that underscores how tightly road and channel traffic overlap there.

The Sunday crash came just one day after a pickup truck went into the water in the same Harris Gap Channel. In that incident, deputies said the truck landed about 100 to 150 feet offshore, all three occupants escaped injury, and Anchor Towing was called to help recover the vehicle while boats still passed through the channel. Investigators said the driver may have fallen asleep behind the wheel.

Sugarloaf Key has long been a developed stretch of the Lower Keys, first developed in the 1960s, and the modern route through the area was shortened in 1942 when the U.S. Navy pushed travel along the former Florida East Coast railroad corridor. That history, along with the heavy daily traffic on U.S. 1, leaves little margin for error at Harris Gap Channel, where a single mistake can quickly become both a road and water emergency.