Law&Crime Sidebar - Young Girls Run Over by Florida Barge in Deadly Sailboat Lesson

Episode Date: August 5, 2025

Three young girls are dead after a devastating crash between a sailboat and a barge in Biscayne Bay, Florida during a youth sailing camp. Now, as families mourn and multiple agencies collaborate on an investigation, questions are being raised about who could be at fault for the collision. Law&Crime’s Jesse Weber spoke with the attorney for one of the surviving girls, Justin Shapiro, who says the tragedy was entirely preventable.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW: If you’re ever injured in an accident, you can check out Morgan & Morgan. You can submit a claim in 8 clicks or less without having to leave your couch. To start your claim, visit: https://forthepeople.com/LCSidebarHOST:Jesse Weber: https://twitter.com/jessecordweberLAW&CRIME SIDEBAR PRODUCTION:YouTube Management - Bobby SzokeVideo Editing - Michael Deininger, Christina O'Shea & Jay CruzScript Writing & Producing - Savannah Williamson & Juliana BattagliaGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lawandcrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wonderry Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this Law and Crimes series ad-free right now. Join Wondry Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. I want to express, on behalf of the entire Coast Guard family, our deepest condolences to those who have lost loved ones and to all who have been impacted by this heartbreaking tragedy. Three girls are dead after tragedy struck during a youth sailing summer camp. The boat they were in with an instructor and other young sailors, collided with a huge barge in the Biscayne Bay area of Florida, not far from Miami.

And now as the community mourns such senseless losses, investigators want to know how this could have been prevented. We got in touch with the attorney for one of the impacted families who thinks there is plenty of blame to go around. Welcome to Sidebar. Presented by Law and Crime, I'm Jesse Weber. I can't emphasize enough how tragic and sad this story is. Okay? Monday, July 28th, several children were on a boat with a sailing instructor.

They were taking part in a youth sailing class that was offered by the Miami Yacht Club. In total, there were six people on board, five young girls, and a 19-year-old camp counselor. This should have been just a great experience. And I want you to hear this discrepancy. So, you have this 17-foot sailing vessel, and it was hit by a 60-foot barge that was pushed by a tugboat. operator. This is according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission and U.S. Coast Guard. Everyone on board that small boat was thrown into the water. Two girls that were pulled from the water accidentally drowned. That is according to the Miami-Dade County Medical Examiner's Office.

Local outlet, WSVN reports that they were identified as 7-year-old Mila Yankovic of Argentina and 13-year-old Erin Coe, a Chilean National who had just recently come to America. And then you have the other two girls who were rushed to the hospital. And tragically, nearly a week after the collision, 10-year-old Ariel Buckman died from her injuries. According to the Coast Guard, she passed away surrounded by her immediate family. A fourth girl, seven-year-old Kalena Gruber, had been trapped underneath that barge, which actually ran over the smaller boat. And her injuries were extensive. But on Monday, August 4th, she was released from the hospital.

She is at home recovering with her family, and actually in a minute, I'm going to be bringing on the attorney representing Kalina's family who said, quote, there is a lot of fault to go around here. So curious if we're talking a lawsuit, what we can expect. But going back to those involved, the 19-year-old camp counselor and the fifth camper, a 12-year-old girl, were treated at the scene, didn't have to go to the hospital. According to officials, it is believed that all the children were wearing life jackets. And for now, the Miami Yacht Club has suspended its youth sailing program. The Coast Guard's investigation is continuing, and its leadership promised a thorough accounting of what happened. The Coast Guard, alongside our local, state and federal partners, has launched a comprehensive investigation to determine exactly what happened to understand the contributing factors and to learn from this law so we can help prevent such tragedies in the future. We are steadfast in our commitment to accountability, continuous importance.

and the safety of our waters. To the families, first responders, and all those impacted, know that we grieve with you. We will not take this lightly and we will not forget. We owe you answers and we are committed to finding them. Now here's something interesting. Toxicology tests for the operators of the tugboat, the barge, the camp counselor all came back negative. This is according to reporting from WSVN. So that rules out seemingly drugs or alcohol as factors.

in what happened in this tragedy. Also, this is a story that we've been tracking and we definitely wanted to bring you an update for it. And the reason we can do this is because of the amazing support that we get from our sponsor, Morgan and Morgan. This is America's largest injury law firm. In fact, they are a firm with over 1,000 attorneys. You know why? Because they win a lot.

They have recovered over $25 billion for more than 500,000 clients. In the past few months, a client in Florida received $12 million after the insurance company offered just $350,000. Pennsylvania, a client was awarded $26 million. That is, 40 times the insurer's $650,000 offer. Another client, Pennsylvania, received $29 million after being offered only $500,000. And even if you think your case isn't worth millions of dollars,

why not start a claim and fight for what you deserve? Morgan and Morgan makes it so simple. You can start a claim from your phone in just eight clicks. So if you're injured, you can easily start a claim at for the people.com slash LC Sidebar by clicking the link below or scanning the QR. or scanning the QR code on screen. But officials also told reporters during a news conference

that it wouldn't be unusual for small recreational boats to be in the same waterways as large barges. It's up to the sailors to all be aware of what's happening in the water around them. Again, a complicating factor about what happened? How could this have been missed? Now, the Miami Yacht Club released a statement on August 3rd posting, quote,

The Miami Yacht Club and the Miami Youth Sailing Foundation are deeply heartbroken to share that a third young sailor has tragically passed away as a result of the incident that occurred on the water earlier this week. This devastating news comes after two young sailors lost their lives in the immediate aftermath of the tragedy. Now, with the passing of a third sailor, the entire sailing community is shattered by grief. Our hearts are broken for these families. There are no words that can ease this pain, but we stand in full solidarity with the families,

counselors, and every member of the YSF during this unthinkable nightmare. And the Coast Guard has asked for anyone who might have photos or videos from that day to send them into authorities to help create a clear picture of what happened before the collision and its aftermath. Okay, so to talk about where things go from here and who, if anyone, could be held criminally or civilly responsible for this crash, I want to bring in Justin Shapiro. Now, Justin is a Florida attorney who is representing seven-year-old Kalina Gruber's family, and he joins us now. Justin, thank you so much.

First thing, how's Kalina doing? It is clear that she had some really brutal injuries. What is the status? How is she doing right now? Jesse, thank you for having me. And let me first just say my heart goes out to all of the families involved here. Kalina's family is acutely aware that other families involved were not as fortunate as her. to be tucking their daughters into bed tonight. Kalena is doing her best under the circumstances.

No seven-year-old child is equipped to endure this kind of trauma. Kalena was caught under the barge at the time of this collision. She was trapped. She nearly died. She nearly drowned, like the other campers there who were not so fortunate. She has lacerations all over her body from head to toe. It looks like she was put in a blender even to this day. So for a seven-year-old child to endure that, it's unthinkable. And she has a long road ahead of her in terms of her recovery, both physical and emotional. This goes without saying our hearts, our prayers, our thoughts are with her, her family, all the victims' families in this case. It is unthinkable.

It really is. It's a horrifying situation. I am curious. This was apparently the first day of the sailing camp. Has Kalina been able in any way to tell you, her family, authorities, more about what happened that day? Yes, in bits and pieces. Again, she is deeply traumatized and she doesn't like talking about this. She tells her parents regularly that she knows she could have died.

Even at her young age, there may be some survivor's guilt there, which is a very real phenomenon, even in the, even in childhood. So, yes, we know that they were all wearing life preservers. We know that it appeared that they knew this barge was going to hit them momentarily before it happened, and there was just no way for them to avoid it as far as Kalana could describe. Now, of course, we're talking about a seven-year-old, but we do know that the barge was coming at them. saw it and the barge hit them. The barge went on top of the sailboat. And that's when these unfortunate children were trapped under the sailboat and drowned to death. You were on record of saying, quote, there was a lot of fault to go around here. I think the operators of both

vessels could have and should have avoided this collision. So let's take that piece by piece here. When you say that they saw this barge, was there an effort on the part of the operator of the sailboat to, and I'm not familiar with the operation here, but is there a way to honk to alert the barge in some way that it's headed towards them? And what can you tell us about the operation of the vessel as well, the operation of that barge? Well, these are two relatively slow-moving vessels. And so for them to collide in this way is almost unthinkable. I've been doing this a long time. My law firm has been doing this for 50 years. I can't remember a time where we have this kind of collision between two slow moving vessels, a sail vessel and a barge.

And so both of these vessels operating at their speeds, if they were keeping a proper lookout 360 degrees by sight and hearing as they are required to under the navigation rules, they both should have had an opportunity to reverse course or to change course and avoid this collision. So I'd be shocked if there is not fault attributed to both of these vessels at the time the U.S. Coast Guard completes their investigation. It's going to be a very thorough and long investigation. They're going to want to get it right. There are three fatalities here. Brevis injuries. It's a high profile case. So we're letting the Coast Guard do what they do best. We're supporting them. We're providing information to the Coast Guard. And the Coast Guard has pledged to learn every

possible lesson from this collision. And we truly hope that that comes to bear because no family should ever have to endure what these families are enduring together at this moment. Was this counselor, this 19-year-old counselor, operating the sailboat? And if so, did the children make this counselor aware this barge is coming, turn the other way? Can you tell us if that's, if I'm misunderstanding the situation? I don't have those details at this point. The Guard is not releasing much information at this point. And again, we're at the mercy of the recollection of a seven-year-old who,

was deeply and profoundly traumatized. So we cannot put those pieces together at this early stage. Our investigation is underway. We're doing our own investigation and our representation of Kalina's family in addition to the US Coast Guard. So this will all play out

and all of the facts will be known, hopefully, shortly. But just to give everybody an idea, this is called unrestricted waters, right? So the barge had a lot of different ways to go. Right? When we say that, it wasn't limited. There were, it could turn directions. I'm assuming, you know, the sailboat could turn directions. When we, when I say unrestricted waters, what should we be thinking about? Well, the navigation rules say that every vessel has a responsibility to avoid a collision, to take evasive action, to operate under reasonable speeds, to be keeping a lookout. So yes, this is the type of waterway where there is freedom. And, liberty to change course, to avoid a collision. And that is the number one requirement when you're talking about a congested waterway like this is avoid collisions by all means with your

lookout, with your speed, all of your effort in a waterway like this should be focused with extreme caution on avoiding collisions despite the right of way rules. You know, everyone wants to know who had the right of way at the time of this incident. And it's a fair question, but it's a lot more complicated than that when you're on the water. It's not like on the roadway where we say who had the stop sign or who had the red light. There's a number of variables dictating how the rules should be interpreted. The U.S. Coast Guard's navigation rules say that a sailboat generally has the right of way over a powered vessel, but there's an exception where the powered vessel has restricted mobility. Presumably the operator of the barge is going to say they had the

restricted mobility, so they had the right of way. But it's important to keep in mind here, the right of way issue is just the beginning of the analysis. There are many other navigation rules that are also going to come into play here. Again, they say that every vessel has a responsibility to take action to avoid a collision despite the right of way rules. Again, 360 lookouts, safe speeds, evasive actions where necessary. These are slow moving vessels. They should have and could have avoided this collision, in my opinion, and that would be the captain of both vessels. And they just didn't do it. I can tell you at this point, there were catastrophic failures here. If we have multiple agencies involved in this investigation and maybe dual investigations

that are happening at the same time, is this going to complicate the flow of information? Are we going to have situations where there's going to be one conclusion pointing the finger this way, one conclusion pointing the finger this way? How are we going to get to the bottom of what happened here? Are you concerned about how this might get complicated? No, I think the U.S. Coast Guard has plenty of experience working with other agencies and their conclusions are going to rule supreme here. You know, this is our jurisdiction. I understand Argentina and Chile because they had some nationals here involved in the collision that they're helping out as well. But ultimately, what the Coast Guard finds is going to be the most important and relevant findings here on

U.S. soil. Talk about investigation. What about the children who were witnesses to what happened? because CBS is reporting, for example, that you have this eight-year-old who was sailing nearby and said, quote, the crane, meaning from the barge, the crane just completely destroyed the boat. The boat just went under. I heard one girl yell, help from under the crane and two girls jumped off the wave, and the crane barely missed them. It was super sad and super scary. I'm just glad I wasn't on the boat, but I felt so sorry for them. So other than the fact that that's just a heartbreaking account from a child, have you spoken to any of these? young witnesses, do you plan to? Eventually, we may have to speak to them. Again, we don't want to interfere with the U.S. Coast Guard. That's first and foremost. And we're exploring civil litigation here because the family wants to affect change. And that is their main goal here.

And they understand that sometimes the best path to achieving change is civil litigation. But we're going to let the U.S. Coast Guard do their thing. We're not interfering in any way. As young as these witnesses are, if they are, if they are, are the only people who can explain what happened here, they're going to be given weight. And I imagine the Coast Guard is going to be interviewing everyone at that point. We'll have a list of who has any information, and we're going to be speaking to them as well. Our goal here is to shine the brightest spotlight we can on this incident so that the public is

aware of it so we can learn from the mistakes that these captains may have made. It's like any air disaster. You have an air disaster where there was one specific error, and the goal, is if enough people understand that error caused a disaster, it's not going to happen again. That's what we're doing here, but we want to shine as much light on what happened on this incident, the tragedy, the families that have been torn apart. We want the world to know about this so it does not happen again. Yeah, Justin, when you talk about litigation, I'm assuming you're referring to a lawsuit that may be filed in the near future. Is this something that would

you be waiting for the actual report from the Coast Guard? Would this be? litigation, a lawsuit against the operators of the sailboat, the barge. What kind of claims are we talking about? Not necessarily, I would think, wrongful death, because thankfully your client survived this. But, you know, are we talking negligence? I mean, what else are we referring to here? We're waiting for the conclusion of the Coast Guard report before we do anything. We're preserving our client's legal rights. This is what we do. We are maritime experts, catastrophic injury lawyers. And so if we were to pursue civil litigation, it would be along those lines. Our client fortunately survived. So it would not be a wrongful death action. But again,

what we're focused on here is making sure the world is aware of this, whether it's through civil litigation or not. First and foremost, we're going to let the Coast Guard do their thing. We want to know exactly what happened. And then we will advise our clients on the best path forward for their goal, which is to make sure that no other family is torn apart in the way these families have been. Have any of the families who lost loved ones consider, have you been in contact with them about them possibly pursuing litigation and joining you in a potential action for their loss of life? I have been in contact with one family. They're taking things one step at a time very slowly and rightfully so. We're respecting their privacy as they process all of this. But

I do not have any clients who lost a loved one at this point. Now, my understanding is the operators of the sailboat, the barge, the tugboat, they were all tested for drugs or alcohol. The test came back negative. So how does that factor into this analysis? Well, we know that there was no impairment, at least as to that captain. And let me just say, Florida is the boating capital of the world. We have more than one million boats registered here. Lots of these boats are operated by tourists, renting vessels, people who are out, they're careless, they're inexperienced, they're distracted, and they are under the influence of alcohol and drugs. We see it all the time. It's just a recipe for disaster. I'm pleased to know

that that does not appear to be the case here, but we've seen far too many grievous injuries and fatalities in Florida for many, many years out on the water. We consistently rank highest in the country in boating fatalities. It has to stop. It's too much. And we have to learn from this and other crashes. And it's not just the boating industry. The legislature has to learn about it. Law enforcement has to learn about it. And we need to affect change for the better. This collision cannot be in vain. I wonder how much of the actual crafts are going to tell pieces of the story. How difficult will it be to recover? let's say the actual sailboat and be able to use that physical evidence to determine what the impact was.

What does that tell of the story? Do you know anything about the recovery efforts of the actual materials from the boat, maybe even the barge? What should we be thinking about there? Yeah. My understanding is that everything's been recovered. And of course, they're going to reconstruct this crash with property damage, you know, damage to the vessels. As you pointed out, that's a big piece of the puzzle. but it is just that. It's a puzzle. It's not just what you see. It's also what the captains should have seen at the time of the incident. And the captains were interviewed. As you pointed out, the children were interviewed. You know, presumably anyone else with any information will have been interviewed. And then when you piece all of this together, we should get some findings. I'd be shocked if the findings don't show us that both captains could have and should have avoided this collision.

have you seen anything in the documented history to suggest that this has happened before with the miami yacht program or just i mean i know this is a relatively new situation but uh the barge have have you looked at the past seen any past instance uh that may tell a piece of this story i haven't seen any indication as to do these two vessels these two captains at this point now that may change we're putting a lot of resources time and effort into our investigation i have haven't seen that yet. We're early on here, as you point out. And what about surveillance footage, cell phone videos, anything that captured this moment? We're all over it. And it was captured. You may have seen some reports with video footage. It appeared to be a crossing situation with the sailboat having the barge on her starboard side. So we did see at least the tail end of the collision. And we're going to be making sure that there's no stone unturned to see if there's any other footage. audio, whatever it is that can help us understand and learn from this collision. Well, listen, Justin Shapiro, thank you for coming on and explaining more of the situation

right now, what is happening behind the scenes. Again, thankfully, Kalena survived this. I understand she has a long road to recovery, both physically and emotionally and mentally after this event. It is a tragic circumstance. and hopefully through the course of this investigation, we will get more answers because I think we can all agree, this should not have happened. This should not have happened. So getting to the bottom of it is very important. Thank you so much for taking the time. Appreciate it.

Thank you for having me, Jesse. That's all we have for you right now here on Sidebar, everybody. Thank you so much for joining us. And as always, please subscribe on YouTube, Apple Podcast, Spotify, wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Jesse Weber. I'll speak to you next time. You can binge all episodes of this long crime series ad free right now on Wondery Plus. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.