Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Details emerge in fatal airboat crash
IN THE EVERGLADES – For decades, airboat operators have thrilled and educated South Floridians and tourists alike, whisking them across the watery prairies of the Everglades in roaring flat-bottomed boats.
But as funeral services were held Tuesday for a 22-year-old woman who died in an airboat crash Saturday, a state representative vowed to look into whether tougher regulations are needed to govern operators in Florida.
Elizabeth “Ellie” Goldenberg and her family were hurled from an airboat during an Everglades ride, just a day after Goldenberg graduated from the University of Miami.
Coincidentally, state Rep. Joseph Abruzzo, D-Boynton Beach, attended the graduation ceremony because his cousin graduated at the same time.
“To see this occur the next day truly broke my heart,” Abruzzo said. “This is something I’d like to weigh in on if law enforcement feels we need to do better.”
He said he plans to speak with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission to determine whether
“This is sad. You never want to hear of anything like this.” Doyle Kennon, operator of another airboat tour company
safety standards need to be updated. “I’m able and willing to file that legislation next session; it all depends what law enforcement feels needs to be updated,” Abruzzo said.
“Airboating is very much part of the district I represent and Palm Beach County,” said Abruzzo.
News of Goldenberg’s death in the Wildlife Management Area, 12 miles west of Krome Avenue, spread quickly through the airboating community.
“This is sad. You never want to hear of anything like this,” said Doyle Kennon, whose family has operated Coopertown Airboat Rides, on the south side of Tamiami Trail, since 1945.
Kennon said he and other Everglades operators each year take hundreds of thousands of visitors into the vast acres of sawgrass. Kennon said he could not recall any recent commercial boating fatalities.
“Something like this is a rarity,” said Kennon. “Any kind of accident.”
New details emerged Tuesday about the incident.
Goldenberg and the four others — her parents, her sister and the airboat operator, Steve George Gagne — were thrown from the vessel as it approached another airboat that had broken down “on the trail,” according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
Gagne “left the trail, and when the vessel returned to the trail, it stopped abruptly,” the report said without elaborating.
In the collision, Goldenberg was pinned under the vessel’s engine cage. She died from her injuries at Kendall Regional Medical Center. Her sister, Dana Goldenberg, 20, was hospitalized with minor injuries, said Rob Klepper, the wildlife commission spokesman.
Goldenberg’s parents, David and Renee, both 54, of Hummelstown, Pa., were not injured. Neither was Gagne, according to the report.
Gagne, who has worked as an airboat captain in the past, could not be reached for comment.
Gagne worked for The River Of Grass Adventures, a tour company that meets its clients at the Shell gas station at 17696 SW Eighth St., known as Dade Corners. The company has a sign there on the north side of the convenience store.
“Our hearts and our thoughts go out to the Goldenberg family, from the bottom of our hearts in our household,” said Robert Price, the company’s owner.
He declined further comment, referring questions to Craig P. Liszt, a Miami maritime attorney. Liszt did not immediately return a telephone message.
Citing an open investigation, the Wildlife Conservation Commission would not provide additional details about the crash. Klepper said that the agency could not say “whether or not this boating incident investigation will result in any charges.”
Goldenberg’s funeral was Tuesday in Pennsylvania, her family said.
Kennon said his airboat drivers “run a dedicated route, the same route over and over again. If we find an unsafe condition, we talk about it with others.”
Riding in or driving an airboat can be dangerous. Last September, a 48-year-old woman was killed near Floral City when the airboat she was riding in struck a tree, according to the Citrus County Chronicle newspaper.
And in May 2016, a 32-year-old Naples man lost part of his left arm in an airboat accident in the Everglades, according to a Naples Daily News article.
But Kennon and other commercial operators take steps to ensure safety, such as providing passengers with life vests.
To operate a motorboat of 10 horsepower or greater, Florida law requires anyone who was born on or after Jan. 1, 1988, to complete a boating safety course and obtain a Boating Safety Education Identification Card issued by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
But Florida does not have a “boating license,” according to the wildlife commission. The Boating Safety Education Identification Card is proof of successful completion of the educational requirements and is valid for life.
Airboat captains are not required to have licenses similar to that required to drive a car, according to the wildlife commission.
Some airboat operators complain there is little regulation.
Since 1962, Lyle Thomas has been the owner of a Parkland-based Everglades airboat tour company, Loxahatchee Everglades Tours. “I have a responsibility to the public,” Thomas said of the way he trains his staff and conducts himself.
Thomas said he has had one accident, in 1964, and there were no injuries. It’s the person controlling the airboat who ensures safety.
Thomas said he’s concerned that some airboat operators “don’t know how to run them. … If you go out on a 50-foot boat and everyone stands on one side, it’s going to be dangerous. There are people who go too fast and there’s not enough law enforcement to catch them.
“Anybody can buy a boat and you don’t need a driver’s license,” he said.
An airboat safety manual from the state Department of Environmental Protection cautions airboat operators to be aware of upcoming trouble spots and to travel at a safe speed.
Matthew Schwartz, director of the South Florida Wildlands Association, said airboats aren’t required to have seat belts, airbags or windshields. Schwartz is a frequent rider, accompanying scientists in field work and running tours on airboats alongside Miccosukee drivers.
“If the boat suddenly stops, you are going to be ejected. You are sitting on a plank, a bench, and your body will continue to move forward.”
He said he thinks Saturday’s crash may have been “a freak accident.”
“Airboats don’t stop abruptly. There’s no brake on an airboat to stop abruptly,” he said. “He had to hit something to make it stop — and the passengers would continue to move at the speed he was traveling at the time. That’s why cars have seat belts.”
Robert Stossel Jr. of Okeechobee, is a recreational airboat rider whose father used to build the vessels.
He said airboats can stop short when the ground dries up.
“It can stop you in a minute,” he said. “I have hit it where it’s thrown me out of the boat. It doesn’t happen very often.”
“I don’t think they’re dangerous,” said Stossel. Still, “I wear a seat belt on mine but people think I’m crazy. My son used to ride with me when he was young and he would fall asleep when we were frogging and I made him wear one [too].”