Four high school girls were seriously injured when the 28-foot Robalo center console they were riding in with 10 other people hit a channel marker near Boca Chita Key in Florida and capsized. One of the girls, Lucy Fernandez, 17, a well-liked senior, died of her injuries the next day.
The Coast Guard said the accident occurred about 6:30 Sunday night on the Intracoastal Waterway in Biscayne Bay about ten miles south of Boca Chita. Boca Chita itself is about ten miles below Key Biscayne.
Miami-Dade Police Marine Patrol boats were first to reach the scene. “Police arrived first and pulled people out of the water,” said Capt. Juan Garrandes of Miami-Dade Fire Rescue. “Some of them were critical. They were taken to Elliot Key where air rescue landed and transported critical patients.”
All told, ten rescue boats, including those from the Coast Guard and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, tried to help people who had been on board after the accident. Seven passengers suffered minor injuries.
Many of the passengers were from two Catholic girls’ high schools. A friend there told CBS4 that Lucy Fernandez, just starting her last year at Our Lady of Lourdes Academy in Miami “was just like a ray of sunshine.” A mass was held for her on Tuesday. Read more:
