NBC 6’s Laura Rodriguez has more on the Coast Guard’s response to the deadly boat crash near Boca Chita Key.
The family of a teenager who was one of 14 people ejected after a boat crash last September near Boca Chita Key that killed another teenager has filed a lawsuit as a result.
Kathya and Rodolfo Puig, the parents of Katerina Puig, filed a lawsuit against the owners of the boat - George and Cecilia Pino - along with three paramedics from the Ocean Reef Volunteer Fire Department stemming from the September 3 incident.
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The department was also named in the lawsuit as well as the company who runs the Trauma Star helicopter that transported several of the victims.
In the suit, the Puig family claims both George and Cecilia Pino purchased alcohol for the teenagers and allowed them to consume it on the vessel. George Pino refused a breathalyzer test after the crash.
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The lawsuit also claimed the paramedics - Gionvani Quintero, Brian Burt and Yusniel Collado - received the call of a crash around 6:50 p.m. but were not dispatched until an hour later. The Puig family claims crews did not make it to their daughter until almost two hours after the initial call.
The 29-foot boat struck a channel marker in the Intracoastal waterway near the south end of Cutter Bank in Miami-Dade County, a report from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission said.
Coast Guard officials said their crew received a call about 20 minutes later via cell phone, not through a marine VHF radio.
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"Cell phones can be extremely unreliable especially depending on where you are on the water, you may not have reception, the battery could die," Coast Guard Petty Officer Ryan Estrada said in September.
One passenger on the boat, 17-year-old Luciana "Lucy" Fernandez, a senior at Lourdes Academy, died as a result of the injuries she sustained in the crash.
FWC initially said they did not believe alcohol was a contributing factor.
