Boat Crash near White City kills Panama City man

New Year's Day 2009 was a somber holiday for the Hutchinson family.

That was the day they lost Claude Hutchinson, 64, when the boat the retired Panama City native was driving struck a tree in the Brothers River.

Hutchinson and Dennis Becker, 36, were both thrown from the boat and into the river, according to Lt. Stan Kirkland, spokesman for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. It has not yet been determined if Hutchinson drowned or if there was another cause of death. Becker was not seriously injured, Kirkland said.

"It's been rough," Skipper Hutchinson, Claude's younger brother, said Thursday. "Claude was a loving, giving person. He would help out anyone with no interest for getting paid or anything."

The accident occurred around sunset Wednesday, and the FWC received a call at 5:33 p.m. from two boys who had been hunting in the area and heard the crash and screams. Hutchinson's relatives said he and Becker were fishing. Hutchinson is Becker's landlord.

Becker told FWC officers that Hutchinson was steering the boat, about 15 feet in length, around a bend in the river but did not turn sharp enough. Neither man was wearing a lifejacket, officials said, but it's unclear whether a lifejacket would have saved Hutchinson.

Kirkland said there was considerable damage to both the tree and the boat, which careened across the river and landed on the opposite bank. Alcohol is not believed to have been a factor, he said.

Hutchinson, a former owner of a gas services company, leaves behind a wife, four brothers, four sons, three daughters, and several grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Born and raised in Panama City, he served three years with the Army in Vietnam before returning to the area.

Skipper Hutchinson talked Thursday about the trips to Maggie Valley in North Carolina he and his brother took. Claude loved a cabin they stayed in there so much that he built one like it on his Panama City property.

"He loved his grandchildren, he loved his houseboat, and he loved his cabin," Skipper said.