Airboat driver won’t be charged in fatal accident

An airboat operator won’t be charged in the Everglades crash that killed a University of Miami graduate in May.

Records released Wednesday show the airboat driver, Steve George Gagne, had used marijuana within 24 hours of the crash, but authorities “could not testify that his normal faculties were impaired.”

“Though logic and reason would support he must have been impaired, there is a sufficient amount of testimonial evidence that contradicts this,” prosecutor Laura Cespedes wrote in a memo.

Elizabeth “Ellie” Goldenberg, 22, and her family were hurled from the airboat during

a ride in the Everglades the day after she graduated.

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 trip had started with a 10- to 15-minute ride before stopping to give the family a lengthy history of the Everglades, the wildlife and what their expectations could be for the tour.

But five minutes into the next driving portion of the tour, while navigating an airboat trail, Gagne passed a disabled vessel to the east of the trail. While trying to navigate his vessel around the stopped boat in a marsh area north of U.S. 41, about 12 miles west of Krome Avenue, his boat rolled onto its left side.

Goldenberg and the four others on the airboat — her parents, who had traveled from Pennsylvania for the graduation ceremony, her sister and Gagne — were thrown from the vessel, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

In the crash, Goldenberg was pinned face down under the vessel’s engine cage in the shallow marsh, where she was unable to breathe for about 10 minutes.

“Despite the valiant and desperate attempts of” her mother and sister to free her, “it was not until they were able to obtain the assistance of several passengers from several other boats that they were able to lift the vessel just enough to extract the victim,” the prosecutor wrote.

Once freed, Goldenberg was taken by another airboat driver to a boat ramp 30 miles away while her mother, a physician, performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation.

She died from her injuries at Kendall Regional Medical Center. The cause of death was drowning, according to records released Wednesday by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

Her father, David Goldenberg, was unable to move in the aftermath of the crash because his legs had gotten caught under the vessel. The victim’s mother, Renee FlaxGoldenberg, was thrown about 20 feet from the airboat.

Flax-Goldenberg was disappointed with the State Attorney’s Office not prosecuting.

“He’s getting away with murder, literally, or manslaughter, which is very disconcerting for us at the very least,” she said Wednesday.

Their youngest daughter, Dana Goldenberg, was pinned under the vessel but was able to escape and assist in rescue attempts despite second-degree burns to her left shoulder caused by the vessel.

Gagne was not injured, according to the report.

Gagne told the South Florida Sun Sentinel on Wednesday he has retired as an airboat driver, saying his leg was already injured but the accident caused more damage: “I kind of ruined my leg trying to do the rescue. I finished my leg off,” he said.

He declined further comment about the tragedy: “I don’t like talking about it all.”

Prosecutors said they couldn’t make a case for vessel homicide or boating under the influence homicide. Part of the reason is they couldn’t prove Gagne had been speeding, although the Goldenbergs said he had been.

Two prosecutors took their own airboat ride to the scene and “immediately… had the impression that we were traveling excessively fast causing us to have to hold our belongings and our seats for stability. However, when we asked the investigators how fast we were traveling, this [assistant state attorney] was surprised to learn we were only traveling at 20 mph, which they assured us was not excessive and was average for the waterways,” Cespedes wrote. “Though the witnesses felt the subject was traveling at excessive speeds, there is no way to prove what the speed was or whether it was objectively reckless.”

She also faulted Gagne’s decision to slow down when he re-entered the sawgrass after passing the stopped boat, saying that was the cause of the crash but couldn’t prove he “was performing in a willfully wanton and reckless manner by trying to be more careful.”

Goldenberg’s parents have since created the Ellie Goldenberg Memorial Scholarship for University of Miami Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) Musical Theatre students “who embody Ellie’s dedication, loyalty and work ethic,” according to the school.

They have also been lobbying for a pending law in Florida that would create airboat regulation. Called “Ellie’s Law,” it would create safety requirements for commercial airboat operators, mandating a safety course, including CPR, and an airboat course run by the state’s wildlife commission. Violations are a second-degree misdemeanor and a $500 fine.

“Nothing is going to make us whole again, but this is what we felt we had to do to prevent other people from going through this horrible tragedy,” said Flax-Goldenberg.

State Rep. Joseph Abruzzo, D-Boynton Beach, sponsored the bill. It’s “sitting on the governor’s desk” awaiting Rick Scott’s signature, Abruzzo said.

Goldenberg