Authorities have identified the individual responsible for the tragic incident involving a 15-year-old girl who was fatally struck by a boat off a South Florida beach. The 78-year-old man, who was operating the boat at the time of the hit-and-run, has been identified as the owner of a Coral Gables residence where Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officers located and seized the boat involved in the incident.
According to the commission's report, the man was the sole occupant of the boat during the Saturday afternoon crash that claimed the life of Ella Adler. The incident occurred near Key Biscayne, just south of Miami, while Adler and another girl were wakeboarding behind a 42-foot Hanse Fjord walk-around. Unfortunately, both girls fell off the wakeboard at different points, with Adler being struck by another boat before she could be rescued by the vessel she was with. The boat that hit Adler fled the scene immediately after the collision.
