Two high-performance boats were involved in a crash on Miami's Biscayne Bay on Monday afternoon, leaving two men dead and two others hospitalized. According to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC), the boats collided around 1 p.m. about one mile east of Matheson Hammock Park and Marina near the Biscayne Channel.

One of the deceased has been identified as well-known Miami Beach real estate mogul Steven Posner, who was driving his 44-foot Marine Technology Inc. (MTI)  catamaran. Posner's cousin, Stuart Posner, was critically injured in the accident and taken by helicopter to Jackson Memorial Hospital. An unidentified friend of Posner's was pronounced dead at the scene.

The other vessel involved in the collision was a 46-foot Skater catamaran, Mixed Emotions, which recently competed in the Key West World Championships in the Superboat Unlimited class. The boat is owned and operated by Fritz Eigelshoven, who suffered rib injuries and was taken to Mercy Hospital. No other injuries were reported.

According to a story in the Miami Herald, Larry Goldman, who owns the Miami-based powerboat dealership Xtreme Marine, said it appeared the boats were traveling side by side when Posner's boat tried to overtake Mixed Emotions, sideswiping it.

A spokesman for the FWC said that based on information from witnesses that the two boats were being operated a high rate of speed and somehow collided with each other.

"We are trying to determine why these boats were going so fast," said FWC spokesman Jorge Pino. "We don't know if they were racing. But I can tell you that they were going at a high rate of speed. We are looking into whether the six people involved knew each other. We believe there were three people on each boat and they may have sideswiped each other."

For more on Posner, click on the Miami Herald story.

And to view a couple of photos from the accident, check out this story from South Florida's CBS 4.

Editor's Note: PowerboatMag.com blogger Steve David addresses the accident in his recent blog. Click here to read it. And feel free to comment to his blog or any of our articles.