Click here: to donate by Credit Card
Or here: to donate by PayPal
Or by mail to: Free Republic, LLC - PO Box 9771 - Fresno, CA 93794
Thank you very much and God bless you.
Posted on 07/24/2026 4:01:00 AM PDT by DFG
A tugboat captain broke down in tears as he accepted responsibility for a collision with a sailboat that killed three young girls in Florida - as prosecutors revealed he was on his phone around the time of the tragic incident.
Yusiel Lopez Insua, 46, wept as he pleaded guilty to seaman's manslaughter on Tuesday over the July 28, 2025, incident that left seven-year-old Mila Yankelevich, Arielle Buchman, 10, and Erin Ko, 13, dead, NBC 6 reported.
The three girls, two others, and a 19-year-old sailing instructor were in the Biscayne Bay on their final week of camp with the Miami Yacht Club when the tragic incident occurred.
Insua was operating a vessel that was pushing a 60ft barge full of construction debris that day. He suddenly plowed into the sailboat, causing it to sink underneath the barge.
At the time, Insua was distracted by his cell phone, and the forward view of the tugboat was obstructed by a crane and deckhouse. No one aboard the boat was assigned as lookout, prosecutors said.
Insua initially pleaded not guilty, but he switched his stance inside a federal courtroom.
He declined to speak to reporters after the hearing, but his lawyer, Walter A. Reynoso, said his client is 'deeply remorseful for his conduct' and that he 'feels awful'.
'Our thoughts remain with each of the families as they continue to endure this profound tragedy,' Reynoso told the outlet.
He faced up to 10 years in prison, but Insua could be sentenced to one year and one day behind bars, followed by six months of house arrest following a plea deal.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.com ...
|
|
Click here: to donate by Credit Card Or here: to donate by PayPal Or by mail to: Free Republic, LLC - PO Box 9771 - Fresno, CA 93794 Thank you very much and God bless you. |
is ‘deeply remorseful for his conduct’ and that he ‘feels awful’.
…I’ll bet the family of those girls are feeling kinda “awful”. Tragic and totally avoidable. Was he texting his girlfriend? Looking at porn? Watching a YouTube video?
More details here...
And for anyone else curious, from a court document available at this link...
...the tug captain is an American citizen.
“...the tug captain is an American citizen.”
At least they claim so...
“Yusiel Lopez Insua”
“He faced up to 10 years in prison, but Insua could be sentenced to one year and one day behind bars, followed by six months of house arrest following a plea deal.”
Un...believable
He was doing the same thing that we all do.
Even if there had been a lookout, there's no way that tug could have stopped, or even slowed down to avoid the sailboat.
Fully loaded, its speed was likely only 5 MPH.
An unfortunate accident that sounds unavoidable.
Life is cheap in America
Both in safety and in doubt, always keep a good look-out;
In danger, with no room to turn, ease her- stop her – go astern!
The master of a vessel is always and in all circumstances responsible for safe navigation. Both the recreational sailboat and the tug. The COREGs may be used to find legal liability, but that relieves neither party of moral responsibility for this tragedy.
>>Obviously, someone made a mistake. There are coregs to prevent such “unavoidable” accidents.
Multiple someones. The sailing instruct9r should have given way to a vessel with restricted maneuverability. He bears part of the blame for the deaths.
Humans are the most easily distracted species on earth. He gets no empathy from me. Completely avoidable. Stupid is as stupid does. God bless those little kids.
§ 83.33 Equipment for sound signals (Rule 33).
(a)A vessel of 12 meters or more in length shall be provided with a whistle, a vessel of 20 meters or more in length shall be provided with a bell in addition to a whistle, and a vessel of 100 meters or more in length shall, in addition, be provided with a gong, the tone and sound of which cannot be confused with that of the bell. The whistle, bell and gong shall comply with the specifications in Annex III to these Rules (33 CFR part 86). The bell or gong or both may be replaced by other equipment having the same respective sound characteristics, provided that manual sounding of the prescribed signals shall always be possible.
(b) A vessel of less than 12 meters in length shall not be obliged to carry the sound signaling appliances prescribed in paragraph (a) of this Rule but if she does not, she shall be provided with some other means of making an efficient sound signal.
My sailboat is 10 m long. I operate in a place where there are shrimp trawlers. There are also idiot recreational power boaters that have no business on the water. I have an air horn right at the helm.
Furthermore, even though a power vessel, a barge (and a shrimp trawler) is "restricted in its ability to maneuver". Sounds like the sailboat sailed right into, or is using, the channel used by barges. Foolish.
I formerly worked at a summer camp teaching sailing. If I were one of the parents, I would sue the crap out that summer camp.
Nay! I do not use my phone in any fashion with I drive, with the exception of GPS navigation. I do not hold the phone in those instances.
The cell phone just might be the Mark of the Beast.
Couple of points.
Biscayne Bay is relatively shallow, but it doesn’t have marked and dredged channels. The barge would not have been constrained by depth.
Coast Guard regs require every vessel to carry a sound device. A horn or something of the sort to produce loud audible signals. The sailboat should have had one and should have been signalling. Of course, the tug was behind the barge, and had its diesel running.
It was completely avoidable. If he was paying attention and had a lookout, he could have avoided this.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.