Parents of teen killed in boating crash want stronger penalties for reckless boaters

Name: Cracking down on reckless boaters
Uploaded: 2025-03-10T10:06:03-04:00
Description: State lawmakers are weighing a bill that would crack down on reckless boaters and require more education. FOX 13’s Kellie Cowan reports

Cracking down on reckless boaters

State lawmakers are weighing a bill that would crack down on reckless boaters and require more education. FOX 13’s Kellie Cowan reports

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - Two and a half years after the death of their 17-year-old daughter, Andy and Melissa Fernandez are pushing lawmakers to consider critical updates to Florida’s boater safety laws.

"I come to you today to this discussion with two different perspectives, not only as grieving parents who lost their 17-year-old daughter the first week she started high school, but also as avid and lifelong boaters. The last thing we are trying to do is hurt this industry. We are advocating to make it a safer environment for all of us," Andy Fernandez told a House Criminal Justice subcommittee hearing on Friday.

Lucy Fernandez was killed when she was 17 in a boating crash.

What is ‘Lucy’s Law'?

Big picture view:

The Fernandez’ have worked closely with state representatives Vicki Lopez and Vanessa Oliver on HB 289, dubbed "Lucy’s Law". The bill aims to improve boater safety by increasing educational requirements for operators and enhancing penalties against recklessness on the water.

The bill aligns the penalties for unsafe boating with corresponding driving offenses by enhancing the penalties for leaving the scene of a boating accident, reckless operation of a vessel, and causing a deadly crash.

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"The penalties for noncompliance are vague and outdated. They need to be aligned, and they need to be consistent with our successful traffic safety models. There needs to be clear penalties for reckless and careless behavior that results in death or serious bodily injury, and the BUI laws, boating under the influence, and associated penalties need to be the same as DUI laws," said Fernandez.

Lucy’s Law would also expand the pool of people who must obtain a boating safety card to captain a vessel.

Dig deeper:

Current Florida law only requires boater education for those born after 1988. Lucy’s Law would require anyone who has not lived in Florida for more than five years, regardless of age, to also complete a required boater education and safety course.

Though the bill originally pushed for requiring blood tests without probable cause in boating under the influence cases involving death or serious bodily injury, and suspension of a driver’s license if a person is convicted of reckless operation of a vessel, careless operation of a vessel, or boating under the influence, those penalties have been removed to advance the legislation.

Who was Lucy Fernandez?

The backstory:

Lucy Fernandez was killed on Labor Day weekend in 2022 when the boat she was aboard capsized near Key Largo.

All 14 people, including 12 teens and two adult parents, were thrown overboard after the boat crashed into a fixed channel marker. Three of the teens were found unconscious in the water. Lucy was killed. Two suffered brain bleeding. Katy Puig, a standout 17-year-old soccer player at the time, was left permanently disabled.

An investigation into the crash found the operator, George Pino, was traveling at nearly 50 mph when he slammed into the concrete marker.

All 14 people on board the boat, including 12 teens and two adults, were thrown from the boat that crashed and killed Lucy Fernandez on Labor Day weekend 2022.

Though Pino, a wealthy real estate developer, admitted to having "two beers" to responding investigators, he was allowed to decline a blood alcohol test.

Despite finding more than 60 empty alcohol receptacles on board his boat, authorities quickly ruled out operator impairment.

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Pinot was initially charged with three misdemeanor counts for careless boating, one for each of the girls found unconscious after the crash. After massive public outcry, and a lengthy Miami Herald investigation prosecutors added a new vessel homicide more than two years after the crash.

Florida leads the nation in boating fatalities, and according to Florida Fish and Wildlife, the vast majority involve operators with no formal boating education.

The Source: This story was written with information gathered by FOX 13's Kellie Cowan.

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