MIAMI — The driver of the boat that crashed off the Upper Florida Keys over Labor Day weekend, killing one teenage girl and permanently disabling another, was drinking that day and supplied the teens and their friends with alcohol, according to a new lawsuit filed by the injured girl’s family in Miami-Dade County court.
Contrary to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission’s initial report that stated alcohol was not likely a factor in the Sept. 4, 2022, crash, the lawsuit alleges that the boat owner and operator, prominent Miami-Dade real estate broker George Pino, drank to “the extent that his normal faculties were impaired” that day and that the 12 minors in his and his wife’s care “were permitted to and did in fact consume alcohol while on that outing.”
The March 17 filing accuses the Pinos of serving the teens the drinks and argue that the alcohol they all consumed “caused and/or contributed to cause” the girl’s life-altering injuries. According to the lawsuit, Pino refused to have his blood drawn or agree to breathalyzer testing following the crash.
The lawsuit — the first in a crash that shook a tightly knit South Florida Catholic school community — came the same week Pino’s attorneys filed a petition in federal court seeking to limit potential financial penalties that could result from lawsuits. It also offers an apparent new explanation that contributed to the collision in south Biscayne Bay, claiming that the vessel’s steering failed to respond. His attorneys did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
All of the girls aboard attended either Our Lady of Lourdes Academy in Southwest Miami-Dade or Carrollton School of the Sacred Heart in Coconut Grove.
Both the girl who died, 17-year-old Luciana Fernandez, and the injured girl, Katerina Sofia Puig, also 17, went to Lourdes.
Puig, who is permanently disabled from the crash, was a standout soccer player at the school. Her parents, Kathya and Rodolfo Fernando Puig, filed the lawsuit. The school’s soccer team later dedicated their season to Puig, and teammate Coco Aguilar, who was injured in the crash, went on to be The Herald’s girls soccer player of the year.
All were ejected
The boat was returning from an afternoon of celebrating the 18th birthday of Pino’s daughter on Elliott Key in Biscayne Bay, running south in a channel through shallow Cutter Bank when it struck the fixed steel Intracoastal Waterway Channel Marker 15. The channel, located west of Broad Creek, ends at the southern boundary of Biscayne National Park, where the waters of Miami-Dade County blend into Monroe County and the Florida Keys.
The 12 girls, Pino, and his wife, Cecilia Pino, 47, were ejected into the water after the vessel plowed into the navigational aid.
Four others, including the Pinos, were also injured. Civilian boaters — and then law enforcement and Miami-Dade Fire Rescue crews — plucked people out of the water after the crash.
Scott Liberman, the Fort Lauderdale attorney representing the Puig family, declined to comment but the lawsuit contends that Pino was driving his 29-foot Robalo boat equipped with twin 300-horsepower engines too fast when it hit the channel marker around 6:30 p.m. on a calm day. It was the last of a series of markers through Cutter Bank on a route back to the exclusive gated community of Ocean Reef Club in North Key Largo, where the Pinos and the teens were staying that weekend. The suit also argues the boat was overloaded with people.
Both civil filings come as sources say the FWC’s long-awaited final investigation report also could be days away from completion.
Limitation of liability
The lawsuit was filed the same week Pino’s attorneys filed a “limitation of liability” in federal court seeking to cap potential monetary damages awarded in lawsuits to the value of his boat after the crash happened. A surveyor hired by Pino’s insurance company priced the highly damaged vessel, a 2019 model, at $5,600. A new Robalo of similar size and horsepower retails for well over $100,000.
“As stark as it sounds, what they’re trying to do is limit recovery to the worth of the capsized boat,” said Fort Lauderdale maritime law attorney Frank Butler, adding such filings are common in the months following boat crashes that result in injuries and death.
“The push is by the insurance company,” Butler said.
The March 14 petition also serves as the first public comments Pino or his attorneys have issued since the tragic wreck.
The attorney who filed the petition, Andrew Mescolotto, repeated what sources earlier said Pino had told investigators that day: that a large boat coming the opposite direction threw a wake that caused him to lose control of the Robalo. But the petition elaborates on what Pino said happened: His boat, according to Mescolotto, “began to turn unexpectedly on its own and put itself on a course roughly headed toward navigational marker 15.”
Pino tried to “steer and correct course, but was unable to prevent an allision” with the channel marker, Mescolotto said. The starboard, or right, side of the boat took on extensive damage before the vessel capsized. Alision is a term for when a vessel strikes a stationary object.
After falling into the water, Pino, who was bleeding from the head, swam back to the wreckage and was able to rescue one of the teens and transfer her to a boater who stopped to help, according to the court document.
Others named in the lawsuit
The Puig’s lawsuit names George and Cecilia Pino, and also the Ocean Reef Volunteer Fire Department and Monroe County’s Trauma Star helicopter ambulance.
The crash happened on the maritime boundary between Miami-Dade and Monroe counties. Elliott Key is techically part of the Florida Keys, but unlike the rest of the chain, is in Miami-Dade County. Ocean Reef is in the northernmost part of Key Largo in Monroe County.
According to the lawsuit, Trauma Star was called to fly to Ocean Reef at 6:55 p.m. to pick up Puig and take her to Nicklaus Children’s Hospital. However, the lawsuit states it did not take off until 8:09 p.m., and didn’t get to the resort until 8:43 p.m., getting Puig to the hospital at 9:07 p.m.
Monroe County did not learn it was named in the lawsuit until contacted by the Miami Herald Monday afternoon, and therefore needed time to review it before commenting, its spokeswoman Kristen Livengood said.
“We were just made aware that Trauma Star was included in this lawsuit. We don’t have any comment at this time as it is being reviewed by our legal department,” Liven good said.
Ocean Reef is being sued because its medics did not arrive on scene to meet the boat that took Puig to the resort until 8:01 p.m., more than an hour after receiving the call, according to the lawsuit.
The delays in both agencies’ response times subsequently delayed Puig receiving life-saving intubation to help her breathe, contributing to her ongoing medical condition, the suit says. Liberman, the family’s attorney would not comment on Katerina’s specific injuries, but the lawsuit indicates she will need lifelong medical care.
Ocean Reef did not respond to a request for comment on the lawsuit’s allegations.
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