Stricter boating laws called for after Herald’s reporting on crash that killed teen girl

After a Miami Herald investigation examined how a Doral real estate broker was initially charged with only three misdemeanors in a boating accident that killed a 17-year-old girl, a state legislator has proposed tougher boating penalties that largely bring them in line with motor vehicle laws.

The proposed changes in Florida Sen. Ileana Garcia’s bill, SB 58, call for boosting the penalties in boating accidents with severe injuries to a third-degree felony punishable by up to five years in prison and a $5,000 fine, not a misdemeanor, as current Florida law stands in careless or reckless boating accidents.

Garcia, a Miami Republican, told the Herald/Times that she was motivated to strengthen boating laws in Florida when it comes to accidents with serious injuries because of the Herald’s reporting of the Sept. 4, 2022 crash. On the Sunday evening of that Labor Day weekend, George Pino smashed his boat into a concrete channel marker in Biscayne Bay, leading to the death of 17-year-old Luciana ‘Lucy’ Fernandez and causing brain injury to her Our Lady of Lourdes Academy classmate, 17-year-old Katerina ‘Katy’ Puig.

“It confirmed how important it is to have tougher regulations and consequences,” said Garcia, who introduced the bill in November. “We can avoid further incidents and create a safer environment for boating enthusiasts with proper regulations and consequences.”

READ MORE: How investigators, prosecutors bungled probe into boat crash that killed teen girl

The bill would be taken up when the Florida Legislature convenes on March 4.

As long as some water navigation rule is violated, the proposed changes in Garcia’s bill make no distinction between whether a person was recklessly or carelessly driving the boat during the crash, which would have made a difference in the Pino case.

Prosecutors with the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office said they only had enough evidence to file three careless boating charges against Pino in August 2023, according to emails from the Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission reviewed by the Herald. The FWC investigates boating accidents, working with prosecutors.

The careless boating misdemeanors carry a penalty of 60 days in jail and a $500 fine.

Prosecutors reevaluated the case, however, in the fall after a new witness came forward.

That witness, Matthew Smiley, a Miami-Dade Fire Rescue firefighter who was among the first on the crash scene, told prosecutors that Pino appeared intoxicated when he pulled him out of the water. He spoke to prosecutors after reading a series of articles in the Herald detailing how boaters who were immediately on the scene after the crash were never contacted by state investigators.

On Oct. 31, prosecutors charged Pino with the more serious felony vessel homicide, dropping the misdemeanor charges. If convicted, Pino faces up to 15 years behind bars and a $10,000 fine.

Pino has pleaded not guilty and his attorney, Howard Srebnick, has maintained that the boat crash was an accident, not a crime.

Garcia’s proposed changes would also require all boaters to carry with them a boating card that indicates they’ve taken a safety course — something less than but similar to a driver’s license — and would add more severe penalties for refusing to take an alcohol breath test.

Pino did not take a blood alcohol test the night of the accident. FWC chair Rodney Barreto has said the agency’s investigators on the scene did not believe Pino was impaired and thus did not have probable cause to seek a judge’s warrant to compel Pino to take the test.

An investigation by the Herald revealed that it appears investigators did have probable cause, according to best practices in the FWC’s and State Attorney’s Office’s training manuals, which list significant injuries and deaths as probable cause for a blood draw.

Pino admitted to FWC investigators he had two beers that day and one of the girls on the boat told investigators she saw him having a drink that day.

In early conversations of the proposed legislation, advocates floated the idea of having a mandatory blood draw in cases of a boat accident that results in serious injury or death. That language is missing from the current bill.

“If this mandate would have existed at the time of the September 4, 2022 accident, it would have overcome the lack of probable cause (as determined by the officers at the scene) and may have provided valuable evidence which could have impacted the course of the investigation ongoing at that time,” said Ed Griffith, a spokesperson for State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle, who is prosecuting the case against Pino and who worked with Garcia on the proposed legislation.

Garcia instead proposed to increase the penalty for refusing an alcohol breath test for the first time from a $500 civil penalty to a one-year boat-driving suspension.

Lucy Fernandez’ parents, Andres and Melissa Fernandez, have been advocating for tougher boating-safety laws through a foundation they created called the Lucy Fernandez Foundation in memory of their daughter.

“At a bare minimum the boater-safety laws need to be equivalent to and consistent with motor vehicle laws,” Andres Fernandez said Tuesday. “We have been pushing for that and I know the proposed bill that was filed by Sen. Garcia seeks to bridge some of those gaps.”

Garcia said she wasn’t sure why boating-safety laws have lagged behind those of motor vehicles.

“I will tell you the boating lobby world is huge,” Garcia said.

This story was originally published December 31, 2024 at 7:09 PM.