Officials with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission identified the boater they said was involved in a deadly crash off Key Biscayne over the weekend.
Yea I feel for the guy. Just thinking about being in that situation puts me in a depressed mood. I've said for a long time that I'm not sure I'd survive even totally accidentally killing a child. And I've never ever been a suicidal person. At least he doesn't have to specifically relive it. Hope that at least makes it easier to get past. And then there's the kid's parents. Oof. I really hope they have good emotional support coming to their sides to help them.
He knew he was in the area of the accident. The news gave a description of his boat. Why did he not call authorities, unless he knew he did it. Now, if he waits until cops find him, no drug or alcohol test will be valid.
And they were towing 2 girls at once behind a 42 ft Fjord. But the girls dropped off at different times. So by the time they turned that 42 footer around to pick up one skier, the other one's been a sitting duck out there the whole time. You can't see a little head bobbing in all that chop.
Apparently they were wakeboarding, ....which makes little difference, but yeah, doing those sorts of water sports on rough sea water in the presence of many high powered speed boats is Stoopid with two "OOs" . I also would not be surprised if they were drinking too.
😂😂😂😂😂 what a ridiculous way of thinking...there is not signs in that área that would stop folks from water sports..senior people should respect people's Lives and accept their limitations!!!!
@user-vk3qr5hy5f .. how about not needing a sign or an app or the government to tell you what to do and using your own effin brain and some common sense .. do you go out on I95 to play hide and seek ..NO cause your gonna get run over DUH
All of the liability is on the boat towing the kids. The operator definitely should be charged and should definitely do a dime piece. And then for good behavior should get out in 3. Going forward water skiing in that area should be illegal and greatly punishable(loss of boating privilege).An app should be developed that highlights the safest places to water ski in every body of water, there are far too many dummies on boats
@@macbook802 Waterskiing there was certainly dumb but the owner of the powerboat bears all the liability. His insurance company will likely pay policy limits out to the family hoping it doesn't go to court. Hopefully he has an umbrella policy as well. Google Daniel Towriss boat accident. A CEO hit the Jetty and injured everyone on board. Happened a few years ago the insurance company paid $50 million but the injured parties are suing for $100 million. Miami has so many maritime attorneys this will be a big payday.
@@macbook802There is a perfect spot right by the beginning of the bridge in front of Brickell for wakeboarding. Nixon sandbar is definitely too close to the channel and in choppier water. Looking at the boat type, I wonder if it was a rental. Then the professional captain would definitely be liable for endangering the girl
100%. I'm glad ppl's emotions aren't taking over and ppl are using their brains when hearing the story and not just reading the headlines. Nixon Sandbar area is a massive boat lane with tons of boats speeding around. Why they would bring two little girls out there to water ski is just beyond my reasoning. It's a very low IQ thing to have done.
As a boater for years that has towed water skiers, the area where I tow them is free and clear of other boats and when the skier falls I have always told them to hold up their water ski so another boat entering the area may see them. Water skiers should always be bright colored ski's and life jackets for safety, dark colors blend into the water! Finally when a skier falls the goal is to get to them quickly! Bottom line when your down in the water it is at times difficult to see someone swimming and if the waters are choppy its almost impossible.
Yeah, common sense says that, you can bet they were chatting and talking when they were picking up the first person and left the other girl obviously unattended. I remember skiing back in the '80s and 90s and you need to do it in an isolated area, pick up the person FAST and if there is too much traffic you have to just stop doing it. Literally to prevent things like this. People can not see you! Even the people from your same boat can lose you in the water. It is a gamble. If these people were young they set her up themselves for this to happen. The responsibility is on the boat operator that left her there. He is the person accountable for her and accountable for his occupants. They literally left a toddler in the middle of a highway at night. I hope the investigation starts pointing fingers at the right people, I am sure it will and all these bozos who still call themselves "kid" will learn an accountability lesson, the hard way as it happens to every spoiled brat.
Immediately when I heard the story I thought it might be a terrible accident. Anyone who has driven a big boat would know visibility is difficult at times. At certain speeds the bow is raised in the water, for comparison imagine driving your car while doing a wheelie. Nothing but hood in your view. Seeing a person with the brightest color flotation vest is difficult too because only a small portion sticks above the water. Sad accident.
@@bbyevo8u Honestly, this is 30-40ft boat with 4 engines, not a small redneck bass boat. They didn’t have to hit her head on, the undertow and just touching a prop would be fatal. This was a horrible accident and Ella did not deserve to loose her life.
@@bbyevo8u Your asleep or don't know anything about boats . He was by himself and probably multitasking things just to run that boat. When you get your captains license please give me a call. 👮♂
I truly hope you don't operate any size boats! I've been on the water operating all size boats for decades and I see poeple like you all the time.. operating a boat is same as driving a car you have to be aware of your surroundings at all times especially near the coast with poeple around, what is it the wild west on the water lol PS this is center console Not a yacht Imo he will be held accountable.
That size boat you wouldn't even notice on plane. Plus you don't play in a channel and use a improper boat for skiing. The boat they used was almost as big as the one that is accused of hitting her. This tragedy could have easily been avoided if some basic safety rules were obeyed.
@@macbook802 Ok Mr 20/20. If you'd ever been on or driven a boat you'd understand the noise of the outboards and wind, chop of the water slapping the hull, rolling waves, sun glare and a small teen with just her head and shoulders bobbing among the waves all could easily add up to disaster. It's not like driving your Dodge Neon up to your 7-11 on a perfectly sunny day.
Well this can truly be called an accident. The lawyers will have a field day, but this is an unfortunate accident. As noisy as boats are, this boat probably didn't even know they hit someone.
@@jamesm568 "You can sue for anything." Except for working class to close the border so wages will go up. Think of all the lost money since the government hasn't kept the border closed. But you can't sue the government for that. Anything else you can sue.
Excellent choice of bringing an inexperienced teen to waterski in a channel or any kind of boat traffic. There are a lot of idiots who should not have a boat
It is not up to the captain to notice - watch - the skier, that is the job of the SPOTTER in the boat. The captain is responsible for piloting the watercraft and watching for hazards, boat traffic AND responding to the commands of the spotter.
This is like playing a flag football game on the highway. The ski boat got her killed. This is a boating traffic way, not smart to be wakeboarding there at all.
True but then, How many smart teens do you know? Now if her dad had known what she was doing he probably would have said, oh hell no you are not. It’s just a really sad tragedy 😢
@@Clarkem1 but it was still an accident which appears to be with no criminal negligence. Everybody did have a right to be there. The elderly man definitely didn't give the right away to a person in the water.
Whoever told that poor girl it was ok to DO ANYTHING EXCEPT BOAT in biscayne bay should be held responsible. That’s like skiing on the Suncoast parkway.
Wakeboarding in that area is ridiculous. Even more ridiculous is a giant 4 engine center console aimlessly riding around near high traffic sandbars. Miami sucks balls
I have a friend who owns a boat smaller than that, and it is hard to see if something is is in the choppy water. The other boat should have signalled the other boat that there is someone intheir path
It is a tragedy. I have water skied, and wake boarded. Most of the time the person driving is trying to make you crash the whole time. Then you float around hoping alligators don't eat you. You sit around the rest of the day with a concussion on the boat in the sun. It is fun though. I can see how this could happen with large boats around. It is harder to see the water in front of the boats, because they are taller, and longer boats.
I cannot tell you how many times from lakes to the ocean we’ve hit something, and it’s such a gentle thud. You think it’s a coconut or a log, etc. this was absolutely horrible, in my gut I don’t think he is a criminal, he didn’t know, he hit a person of all things in Biscayne Bay!!!!,of all places,!!!!,but my prayers go out to her family, it’s just sad all the way around and I really hope they this so-called justice system really does due diligence, because again I don’t think he knew he hit a human much less than 15-year-old , I don’t blame anyone, this was a very horrifying accident🙏🏻😞
Everyone thus far that was calling for the guys punishment for "hit and run", should take this opportunity to realize that they lack analytical ability and need to reevaluate everything about themselves and the world around them.
When you are riding past 20knots on a boat, the nose of the boat points up, and it's hard to see a tiny head sticking out of the water. Manatees get hit all of the time because of this. She wasn't in a no-wake zone, so this was just a tragic accident.
When I’m waiting for the boat to pick me back up I always try to wave my hands and make sure the other boats are seeing me before the even get close because it’s easy to get ran over😢
@user-iv4uy4qz4b Wrong. Yes, there's the red/white diver down flag, but any boat towing a skiier, wakeboarer, or tuber must have an orange flag 12x12 inches and a spotter other than the boat captain. The spotter has to be 12 or older (varies by state). The spotter has to display the flag whenever the skiier is down, or someone falls off the tube. We also put it up if we're swimming.
We ski all the time in New York and I didn’t know that a flag is required ( went into effect here in 2021 ). Regardless, as soon as our skier falls we get back quickly and circle the skier, but with lots of traffic and a 42 foot boat, that might not have been possible. We also hold the ski aloft while waiting for the boat to get back.
Exactly. Also, go skiing on a lake. We used to go at 5pm when all the mid-day morons were getting OFF the lake for the day. Even with fewer boats around, at least 2 times I had to pop off my slalom and raise it up high when someone got a little too close for comfort.
The one guy makes lots of sense about the area not an ideal spot for skiers. The size of boats with limited visibility is huge too. An issue I see often is drivers of the tow boats take their sweet time getting back to their skier and often don’t have flags. Need to race back to your skier just in case they have a problem and also to beat a boater not paying attention as in this case. When we had young people skiing we had the flag up the whole time.
Yeah, the towing boat is like a million dollar day rental boat. No one would think someone was wakeboarding behind it. Plus there is no way it can maneuver like a proper ski boat. And most importantly, when boaters see a ski boat, they know there might be people being towed and they look out for them. This boat just looked like any another other boat going down the channel and so there was little concern for people being in the water by it
@@Niaaal Hmm. Haven’t seen pic of the boat the girl was from. But that makes sense. I watch that Haulover Inlet/Wavy Boats and a boat launch guy videos sometimes. Boating there looks like a mess.
The boat pulling her is Responsible. Was she floating in the Channel that is for boats? Why wasn't her boat circling her? Was it a ski boat with proper safety. No. Sadly. Get that captain.
What a tragedy. And a preventable one at that. Skiing in high population of boats. Using a 42' Boat to wake board ( thats crazy in itself). And this man is Im sure devastated along with all who knew and loved the teen.
Exactly what I thought happened. He didn’t know, and then he started seeing all these new stories, realized he was out on that day and began to put two and two together. And then lawyered up.
Guy is innocent. Accidents happen. Besides, it was like skateboarding in the middle of a busy rush hour freeway. What the hell do you expect to happen!
This truly is tragic but I can't help but believe this man.. People think that one of these very big multi-outboard engine boats would so much as shudder our thud when running through a human - not to mention one as small is this young lady was - it is NOT true.. I've said this in other YT videos on the topic.. This is NO place to wakeboard / waterski, or be someone bobbing out in the water / channel.. I don't know the time of day but I have been both in open water (ocean) and on the lake... Depending on the time and where the sun is located, it can become VERY hard to identify small objects, especially when it isn't glass water.. It is a tragedy, but what I also said is simple.. Do you think a guilty party, knowing what they did, and did not stop to help... Would just take their boat right back in front of that house like nothing happened??? No way.. This was simply a accident.. I'm sure this man is going through different levels of h3ll now knowing that he killed a young girl..
Wasn't anyone on the wake boat waving flags and signaling people in the water? And before someone says "why would they do that" that's what you do with wake or skiers fall in. YOu are to return for them while signaling to others with flags that you have people in the water.
You are the only one in the comment section that mentioned the flag person. I don’t think any of these other people have ever water skied. 100% agree with you. I don’t think they were following procedure when they were towing this girl.
Yes, its not a good idea to water ski around a heavy boat traffic area. But with that said others should not be driving on plane in a high traffic area.
I feel sorry for this man!! I can't even imagine what he is going through. He better not be charged!! Are they even talking To the driver of the boat that was pulling her?
He better be charged! How can you think otherwise? How do you know he was keeping a proper lookout while driving? Maybe he was driving at 85 MPH. Of course he should be charged. Probably manslaughter - unless there was some very, very good reason he did not see her in the water.
If dude is too old to see a body in front of his boat, do you think he's going to see someone else with an orange flag on a completely different boat? Driver of the tow boat is guilty, and the 78 year old driver should not be allowed to drive a boat or a car
His age has nothing to do with it. Plenty of 78 year olds that drive better than people half their age it’s all about his mental and health condition and it sounds like he is in good shape to operate a boat. Some of you will one day get back everything you dish out when or if you get older. There is only one way not to get older and that is to die young
As a person who hit a swimmer with a boat once, this is a boating nightmare. Everyone is out to have fun and a person in the water MUST hold up their board or ski to be seen. The water ski driver must do what we call the protection circle around the skier IMMEDIATELY when they fall… Their boat is just to large for such an activity.
No. the vessel operator is obligated to see her, and to keep a lookout in front of his own vessel. Think driving your car, you hit a pedestrian that you "didn't see." Well - you damn well better see what's in front of your car, or its manslaughter. Same with boats. Distraction: Was he talking on his phone? Eating a tuna fish sandwich? Applying suntan lotion? Going 85 MPH? Responsibility for her death may, repeat may, be shared with the tow boat operator if he was doing something stupid. But the vessel operator in no way is "off the hook" just because he didn't see her.
As a boater, i can tell you visibility is not the best when dealing with the ocean’s weather conditions especially on that size boat in short field of vision.
“Authorities identify boater who killed teen girl . . . “ The headline seems unfair. While technically correct, until one watches the video, it implies that there may have been deliberate intent and malice involved. Instead, the boater MAY HAVE accidentally hit the girl, who was in the water after falling from waterskis, (we still don’t know if it WAS him), that he did not realize he’d hit anyone (assuming he had), and that he came forward and is fully cooperating with police. We’re all sorry for the teen girl, and I’m sure the 78 year old boater feels like crap (I know I would), but it was an accident.
You shouldn’t say killed in your description of this video you should classify this as an accident like boater involved in accident it seems as if your placing blame solely on him
35 years of age now and been boating my whole life in Miami. While this is a horrible tragedy, my first thought that comes to mind is why would you take anyone wakeboarding in one of the busiest sandbars in key biscayne? That is like taking my daughter on I95 to teach her how to ride her bicycle. Why aren't they asking the captain of the boat why he chose to wake board in a crowded known sandbar when there were other safe places in the bay to ski/wake board. I feel horrible for the family of the young girl who lost her life and the gentlemen who now may lose his freedom because another adult decided that wakeboarding in the most crowded dense boating area was a good idea.
You cannot hit someone, especcially a person attached to a wakeboard fatally without knowing it. I had a 5 year old cousin who was killed the same way. They never found the killer.
I’m a person who goes out on my boat almost every weekend, I do believe that if it was him he did not expect nor saw what happened because it’s not expected in open water for a person to just be in the water . But if it was him I believe he did not know and that’s why he is cooperating. it’s a tragedy that happened innocently. God bless the family and my condolences and also god bless the old man if he innocently did not know or if it wasn’t him . But if he did know I hope he Rotts in jail !!!! Just hope for justice for everyone involved
I love how people try this boater instead of being understanding of the situation. It could happen to anyone, there should be a safe area for water skiing and such, not in the middle of a busy boating traffic. If anyone is to blame it should be the people who thought skiing in such a dangerous area was ok. Sorry for everyone involved.
I used to use the Marine Stadium Marina just north of there on the other side of the causeway - that was a safe closed in area that was used by all - I have not been back to that area in some time, but it still shows there on the maps - most of the time I used the lakes in Dade County with my kids - I did not like to troll them as bait in salt water since there are a lot more fish that could out run my boats - my 22 did 47mph and my 17 was clocked with radar at 52 -
If his boat had AIS (tracker) on board it’ll be easy to see if he quickly changed course or speed at that location. It’s crazy this happened and I feel for the girl and her family and friends.
@@rodd8125 ours is tied into the NEMA2000. Everything is tied together gps, radar,autopilot. Possibly his could be separate or elected not to turn on. Not required for recreational boats. Just a tragedy either way.
@@jimreid67 Right. I mean none of us were there and it's very possible she was struck and he had no idea with so much boat traffic and other things to pay attention to just to navigate the area.
The captain pulling the wakeboarder is more at fault here than anything. As a seasoned Watersports coach, I have been trained to immediately get in between the rider and oncoming hazards.
I have never seen a boat that size pulling water skiers and to do it in a congested boating area is not a good idea.. A person in the water may be hard to spot and impact probably not noticeable terrible accident
they should leave this poor guy alone and let the family of the girl grieve in privacy. Anyone who has boated knows how hard it is to see things in the water, and there would have been no effect on the boat that anyone would have noticed. Let it be....
In the chain of lakes in the area I grew up in (and worked at the marina!) you'd be fined for skiing outside of designated zones at designated times. It's possible that the boater who struck the girl didn't know; I've piloted large boats, and sometimes you can't feel stuff.
It’s up to the captain of the vessel to be fully aware of his surroundings. If your offshore you can afford to be a little un attached to your surroundings but not in the inter coast water ways. Your sharing that area with many many other people
Sounds to me like just a tragic accident. I have come close to being hit before. You shouldn’t swim, dive or ski near heavily trafficked areas. Seeing a person in the water is very difficult. especially from a boat this large and fast. So so sorry. I don’t think that there is any strong right or wrong here. The lesson for all is avoid potential situations like this. Boats today have become so large and fast that it really does increase potential for this type of occurrence.
Imagine a kid running across I-95 on a busy friday night. That would be insanely irresponsible! That navigational channel is very busy, especially on a Holiday weekend. There are often dozens of huge boats cruising by at high speeds. Completely avoidable tragic accident.
While I have my own opinions, I don't believe the owner of the boat who struck the poor girl is CRIMINALLY LIABLE. Its an awful situation, but that area is NOT SAFE to be waterskiing; I don't even ride my stand up jet ski there out of concerns if I fell off!
So let's guess that if he was towing 2 people that didn't fall at the same time, he was going to make a wide turn so the other person didn't fall until he got back to the first one, the old guy may have been looking at the one that was still up and not even noticed that 1 had fallen, curious that they don't talk about what the tow boat did, not defending anyone, just a lot curious about the tow boat with a bunch of people on it.
Oh please, he knew. Cops were looking for his boat for days giving out exact descriptions yet he never called. He knew a young girl was killed in the same exact area and at the same exact time he was boating yet kept quiet. He always knew. Now he's playing the I'm too old and feeble to be a criminal card.
Look, you can't blame a boater for not being able to see in front of them while speeding around, especially after a day of drinking. Are there no freedoms any more? /s
