Parents of three girls who died in barge-sailboat crash sue barge company
The parents of the three Miami Yacht Club summer campers who were killed last summer when a 60-foot barge slammed into their sailboat sued the company that owns the barge and tugboat pushing the barge, alleging negligence and irresponsible hiring.
The wrongful death lawsuit, filed Dec. 29 against Waterfront Construction, states that on the morning of July 28, 2025, Mila Yankelevich, 7, Erin Ko, 13, Arielle Buchman, 10, and Calena Areyan Gruber, a 7-year-old who survived the crash, boarded a 17-foot Hobie Getaway to “learn the basics of sailing under the supervision and guidance of a camp counselor.”
READ MORE: Lawsuit IDs barge owner in fatal Miami Beach sailboat crash. ‘Preventable tragedy’
The sailboat, carrying five girl campers and a 19-year-old female camp counselor, was among the first boats to leave the Miami Yacht Club’s dock near the MacArthur Causeway and head east in Biscayne Bay toward Hibiscus Island in Miami Beach, according to the suit. The weather was clear and the water calm on that Monday morning, but the barge — being pushed by the 25-foot-long tugboat Wood Chuck— “made no attempts to slow down or change its course,” as it became clear a collision was imminent, the suit alleges.
Witnesses on Hibiscus Island, including roofers working on a home near the shoreline, saw the two vessels were on a collision course and began shouting warnings to the tugboat operator, but it was too late. The barge struck the sailboat head-on, causing it to tip and capsize, the lawsuit alleges.
READ MORE: ‘We were screaming and screaming.’ Witnesses watch as barge hits sailboat of campers
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The campers and counselor were catapulted into the water. Mila, Erin and Arielle died. The Miami-Dade Medical Examiner’s Office ruled their cause of death as drowning.
Calena, who was trapped under the barge but managed to swim out, suffered “catastrophic injuries” that will affect her for the rest of her life, the suit says. The families of the four girls filed the suit.
“The parents suffered and continue to suffer damages, including mental pain and suffering, loss of the child’s companionship,” the suit states.
The suit alleges Waterfront Construction, which owns both the barge and tugboat, was “negligent, careless, and reckless” in failing to prevent the collision through proper safety policies, procedures and guidelines, and in failing to hire properly trained employees. It also claims the barge did not have proper lookouts, failed to render aid, and lacked appropriate safety equipment.
In October, the Coast Guard recommended manslaughter charges against the “parties involved in the towing company,“ the agency said in a statement. The case has since been taken over by the Department of Justice in Washington, which has yet to file any criminal charges.
READ MORE: Coast Guard recommends manslaughter charges in sailboat crash that killed three
Lorenzo Palomares, an attorney for Jorge Rivas, the owner of the Miami-Dade-based Waterfront Construction, previously told the Herald that the tugboat captain “has been navigating these waters for 12 years and knows them backwards and forwards. We’re trying to figure out what [the sailboat passengers] were doing out there.”
The barge captain is not named in the lawsuit.
Gustavo Martinez, an attorney for Waterfront, declined to comment on the lawsuit when reached by the Herald Wednesday. The attorneys representing the girls’ families could not immediately be reached for comment.
This story was originally published February 11, 2026 at 1:57 PM.