Three Concord Students Face Close Call Over Spring Break

Deputy Taner Primmer rescues students after jet ski flips.
Photo Courtesy of Daily Picks and Flicks

As college students, we all know the excitement when the long wait for spring break finally arrives. Unfortunately for Concord students, Allison Garrett, Shyanne Dube, and Skyler Pentasuglia, the excitement quickly turned into a life-threatening disaster that would be on national news everywhere.

    Over the break, the three women were heading to Coca Beach, Florida to enjoy some fun in the sun. “We had all never been somewhere on spring break, so we thought it would be fun to take a trip with each other since we are all best friends. We could also go see Skylar’s brother and enjoy the beach for a week. We all wanted to destress from school a little,” says Garrett.

    Dube states that when they arrived in Florida, they went to eat and then decided to ride jet skis to enjoy the nice weather. Unfortunately, this is when the twist of events started to happen. The three women were at Port Canaveral harbor, and Garrett states that it is the only one that can be used to get into the ocean from where they were. Since they had permission and Pentasuglia, and her brother and his wife had used the port before, they decided to continue doing what had always been done; however, when they were leaving the port going out to the ocean, they saw a cruise ship.

    The cruise ship was not moving, so they knew they had time, but that quickly changed once they got a few miles out on the ocean. Pentasuglia’s brother told the women that they needed to head out because the cruise ship was about to leave. Garrett states, “We probably went 100 feet after that before water had gotten up into the jet ski and flipped us over. We weren’t even in the channel but we flipped the jet ski over three times and [we] all tried to get back on, but the currents were pulling us in front of the ship.”

    According to Fox News, Carnival Magic weighs an astounding 130,000 tons and the women saw the enormous cruise ship heading right towards them. However, they could not do anything about it. “We definitely saw it, there was just no way for us to get more out of the way than we were,” states Garrett. Luckily for these women, they were saved. Garrett states, “We were lucky we were out there with Logan and his wife Ashley because they picked up Shyanne and pulled her onto their jet ski.” Fox News then states that within a matter of seconds before getting ran over by Carnival Magic, Deputy Taner Primmer, member of the SeaPort Security Marine Unit, risked his life and saved Garrett and Dube.

    Garrett shares her heartfelt gratitude by saying, “We are just so very thankful for the deputy that was out there. He is the only reason we are here right now and we honestly don’t know what we would have done without him. He is our hero. Crazy things happen and he saved our lives that day.”

    A cruise ship passenger recorded the scary incident on their phone and it was quickly picked up by the news and instantly went viral. News outlets like Fox News, WFTV, Florida Today, Daily Mail, and others picked up the story. Pentasuglia states becoming viral was unreal. “After it was all done I was like ‘We are going to be a meme!’ and then the video came out and went viral and we kept getting so many calls to do interviews it was just insane. We never expected of all that to happen. I’ve been told it was on the news in the UK and even in Germany. It was all so hard to believe,” she states.

    It is important to take into consideration safety tips with summer coming up. Just like these three women have shown, anything can happen when you least expect it. For safety tips to keep you safe this summer, please visit https://www.aap.org/en-us/about-the-aap/aap-press- room/news-features-and-safety-tips/pages/summer-safety-tips.aspx.