The tugboat pushing a barge that slammed into a sailboat carrying summer campers in Biscayne Bay — killing two girls and seriously injuring two others — may not have been operated by a licensed captain because of loopholes in Coast Guard regulations, maritime experts told the Miami Herald.
If a commercial tugboat is under 26 feet, it is subject to fewer requirements and restrictions, a retired ferry, barge and tugboat captain and a longtime South Florida barge/tugboat company said. A Herald review of Coast Guard navigational rules confirmed the loophole.
Under federal law, these types of vessels do not require the operator to be a licensed captain. The only requirement is that the operator is a U.S. citizen.
Tugboat companies often advertise ‘No Licensed Captain Required!’ for pushboats or truckable tugs. When barges are used to transport equipment in construction work — and the tugboat pushing the barge is under 26 feet — they don’t require a licensed captain, commercial maritime experts say.
The barge in Monday’s crash was transporting a crane and other construction materials; the large crane could have obstructed the tugboat operator’s view from the pilot house. A review of photographs taken by Herald photojournalists and analysis by two AI tools estimate the tugboat is under 26 feet. The Coast Guard declined to confirm the tugboat’s length when reached Friday afternoon.
“Companies try to take advantage of these rules,” said the retired tugboat and barge captain, who asked not to be identified due to the sensitive nature of the crash. “The Coast Guard has to reevaluate [the regulations] to avoid a tragedy like this from happening again.”
The barge also should have had a lookout on board, according to Coast Guard Navigational Rules.
“Rule 5: Look-out: “Every vessel shall at all times maintain a proper look-out by sight and hearing as well as by all available means appropriate in the prevailing circumstances and conditions so as to make a full appraisal of the situation and of the risk of collision,” the Coast Guard rules say.
It’s unclear whether the barge had a dedicated lookout person. In the minutes leading up to the crash, eyewitnesses interviewed by the Herald said they saw a barge crewman warning the tugboat operator only at the last moment.
“There should have been a proper lookout and a proper speed maintained to not get close enough where you’d have take evasive action like that,” said Brett Rivkind, a longtime Miami maritime personal injury attorney.
Coast Guard rules also call for boat operators to use horns to signal they are coming. Two of three roofers interviewed by the Herald on Tuesday - who were working on a Hibiscus Island home in Miami Beach and witnessed the crash from the roof and the minutes leading up to it - said they heard no horn prior to the crash.
Coast Guard rules specify when sound signals should be used, particularly when boats near each other: “When vessels in sight of one another are approaching each other and from any cause either vessel fails to understand the intentions or actions of the other, or is in doubt whether sufficient action is being taken by the other to avoid collision, the vessel in doubt shall immediately indicate such doubt by giving at least five short and rapid blasts on the whistle,” Coast Guard Rule 34 states. “This signal may be supplemented by a light signal of at least five short and rapid flashes. “
The Coast Guard declined to answer the Herald’s queries about its rules and the crash investigation.
“We understand the public’s desire for answers, and we ask for patience as the formal investigation proceeds,” Coast Guard Petty Officer 3rd Class Nicholas Strasburg said Friday.
Barge runs over sailboat
Shortly after 11 a.m. Monday, a 60-foot barge pushed by a tugboat operator slammed into a 17-foot Hobie Getaway filled with five summer campers and a camp counselor from the Miami Yacht Club, a nearly 100-year-old club on Watson Island that teaches children how to sail.
Mila Yankelevich, 7, and Erin Victoria Ko Han, 13, were killed in the aftermath of the collision, which occurred between Hibiscus and Monument islands in Biscayne Bay off Miami Beach. Two other girls - ages 8 and 11 - were rushed to Ryder Trauma Center at Jackson Memorial Hospital in critical condition. A 12-year-old girl and the 19-year-old female camp counselor were treated at the scene.
The barge ran over the sailboat, officials said. The five girls and the counselor were wearing life jackets, the Coast Guard said Tuesday in a news conference.
The Miami-Dade Medical Examiner’s Office concluded Mila and Erin accidentally drowned. The Coast Guard, which is leading the investigation into the crash, has yet to publicly identify the victims or indicate the girls’ conditions at Jackson.
The tugboat operator and another person on the barge were not under the influence of drugs or alcohol after the Coast Guard conducted a blood-draw sobriety test, the agency said. The blood-alcohol test results of the camp counselor came back negative as well, the Coast Guard said.
The Coast Guard has not released the names of the tugboat operator, the barge crew or the company that owns the barge or the tugboat.
‘Duty to avoid a collision’
The retired captain told the Herald the “lax atmosphere” frustrates him and many other captains in the industry, especially because many tugboats under 26 feet are not subject to Coast Guard inspections. Some of these vessels may also be designated “workboats,” subjecting them to fewer regulations if they are moving materials within a worksite or to and from a site, according to a Coast Guard memo.
The captain said he also believes the tug operator’s visibility was obstructed by the crane — and questioned why the lookout didn’t notice a flotilla of small sailboats with summer campers aboard sailing in the narrow channel in Biscayne Bay before the crash. Photos and video immediately after the crash show several small sailboats filled with children in the bay.
He said he had been in similar situations while piloting vessels during his decades-long career.
They require situational awareness, not only from the operator, but from the person looking out, he said.
Before the collision, the counselor and girls on the Hobie were yelling and waving for the barge to stop, witnesses told the Herald. The three roofers working at the home on Hibiscus Island also were yelling to get the barge to stop.
“We were screaming and screaming, but we were just too far — he wasn’t going to hear us,” William Cruz, one of the roofers, told the Herald Tuesday. “They were headed straight for the children and by the time the man realized, the barge was already right on top of them.”
The operator likely couldn’t hear from inside the pilot house atop the towboat, the captain said. But the person looking out should have immediately informed the operator about the girls and witnesses frantically pleading with the vessel to stop. “If they had time to warn, then [the barge operator] had time to change direction,” he said.
The captain emphasized that this crash is not about which vessel had the right of way and compared the incident to defensive driving on roadways. “The operator had a duty to avoid a collision... All mariners must avoid a collision regardless of who has right of way,” the retired captain told the Herald. “It’s sad, tragic for the kids and their parents. It now falls on the Coast Guard to change and enforce these regulations.”
'Obligation to the children’
For Stuart Ratzan, a Miami civil attorney of more than three decades, Monday’s crash is part of a larger problem on South Florida’s waterways. Florida has had a surge in boating activity since the pandemic, leading to several high-profile fatal boat crashes in recent years, said Ratzan.
South Florida’s waterways — especially Biscayne Bay — have become increasingly congested.
Florida has more registered vessels than any other state in the country, topping 1 million, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission’s 2024 annual report.
Commercial vessel operators, Ratzan said, must take precautions to guard the safety of recreational boaters, particularly children.
“It’s outrageous that a commercial vessel pushed by a tugboat was operating in an area where children are sailing,” Ratzan said. “This is basic negligence. At the end of the day, ...they had an obligation to the children.”
Miami Herald staff writer David Goodhue and Miami Herald writer CD Goette-Luciak contributed to this report.
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