According to the first official report released on Tuesday, all 14 passengers on board a boat that crashed near the Florida Keys over the Labor Day weekend were evacuated from the vehicle. A kid was killed and three others were hurt after a 29-foot Robalo center console boat crashed into a channel marker in Broad Creek, a waterway in the Upper Keys, on Sunday night. Investigators claim that the following impact, the vessel capsized.
The passengers were rescued from the sea and brought to shore by nearby boaters as well as the teams of law enforcement and fire-rescue boats.
According to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, the principal body looking into the collision, four young girls were critically hurt and transferred to multiple hospitals in Miami-Dade County. Luciana Fernandez, often known as Lucy to relatives and friends, passed away from her wounds the next day. As of Tuesday, Katerina Sofia Puig, 16, Coco Aguilar, 17, and Isabella Rodriguez, 17, were the three girls who were still being treated in the hospital.
According to the report, the boat’s captain, George Ignacio Pino, 52, Cecilia Pino, 47, Sarah Emily Gutierrez, 17, and Cecilia Lianne Pino, 17, were also hurt in the collision. State Street Realty, a commercial real es
tate brokerage situated in Doral, is run by George Pino as president; his wife Cecilia also works there as an executive. He also participates in the Orange Bowl Committee and the Ocean Reef Club. According to the findings by FWC investigators, alcohol does not seem to be a factor in the collision.
The investigation states that Pino was on its way to Ocean Reef, a private gated neighborhood and resort in north Key Largo when it collided with the green Intracoastal Waterway Marking 15, the final marker in a narrow canal known as Cutter Bank. A larger vessel may have been directed toward Pino’s boat before it struck the channel marker, according to many people who know those who were on the boat. After the incident, the boat reportedly departed the area. FWC spokesman Arielle Callender declined to comment on whether or not another boat may have been involved.
“As this is an active investigation, this is the only information I have at this point,” Callender said. The crash report said that arrests were “pending.”
Because the majority, and maybe all, of the students attend either Carrollton School of the Sacred Heart in Coconut Grove or Our Lady of Lourdes Academy in Southwest Miami-Dade, the tragedy rocked the close-knit Catholic school community in Miami-Dade. Since it was revealed that Lucy Fernandez had passed away, Lourdes has hosted a number of activities, including a vigil Monday night at the school where hundreds of people gathered to pray the Rosary while inconsolably crying.
“She was a young woman of faith, well-liked by her teachers and peers, empathetic, faithful, and hungry for God,” Carmen T. Fernández, Our Lady of Lourdes Academy president, wrote in a g-email to students and parents. “And though her sudden passing is heartbreaking and has come as a shock to us all, I have absolutely no doubt that Lucy was ready to meet our Lord and enter his Kingdom.”
Friends, classmates, instructors, coaches, and members of the community kept up their prayers for the other girls hurt in the collision. On the Lourdes soccer team, Katerina Sofia Puig and Coco Aguilar both stand out, according to their coach David Fique.
“Coco and Katy are a very important part of our team,” Lourdes coach David Fique said in a statement he sent to the Miami Herald. “They’ve been in varsity since their freshman year; both have attended three state finals and have won one.”
In April, midfielder Aguilar received the Second-Team All-Miami-Dade County honor.
“The way she worked defensively was key for us in big games last season,” Fique said. “Her smile is contagious, and she is very loved by the group.”
Puig led Lourdes to the state semifinals for the third year in a row and helped the Bobcats finish as the runners-up in Class 6A despite finishing her junior season with just eight goals and four assists.
“I don’t see myself as a top scorer,” Puig said at the time. “I kind of see myself as the person that makes the pass to the scorer and motivating to the team. From the outside in, you can’t really see that I’m out there, but I’m the person that I can connect with everyone.”
She was selected Dade County Player of the Year and First-team All-Miami-Dade midfielder for the 2021–2022 campaign.
“It is my privilege to coach these girls and have them on my roster,” Fique asked.
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