Law creates safety rules for airboat operators

Airboat operators offering Everglades tours will have to meet new safety requirements under legislation spurred by the death of a recent University of Miami graduate.

On Friday, Gov. Rick Scott signed “Ellie’s Law,” which requires operators to complete CPR instruction and a course on airboats run by the state’s wildlife commission.

Elizabeth “Ellie” Goldenberg, 22, graduated May 12 with a theater degree and died in an airboat accident the next day in Miami-Dade County.

Commercial airboat rides had been largely unregulated, and the state didn’t require operators to have licenses or complete specific training courses.

Beginning July 1, 2019, airboat op- erators will need to be able to show proof they completed the training courses. Violations are a misdemeanor offense punishable by up to a $500 fine.

Goldenberg and the four others on the airboat — 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.

In the collision, Goldenberg was pinned under the vessel’s engine cage. She died at Kendall Regional Medical Center; the cause of death was ruled to be drowning.

Gagne was not charged in the matter. Prosecutors said they could not prove he was speeding, although the Goldenbergs said he was.

Scott signed 17 other bills Friday. Among those was a bill allowing for Floridians to have alcoholic beverages delivered via smartphone applications. Another bill reinstates a law that requires state and local elected officials to resign to run for Congress.

Scott vetoed a bill that would have allowed the Palm Beach County Commission to appoint two members to the board overseeing the Palm Beach County Housing Authority.

Despite its name, the county has no oversight of the housing authority. Instead, the governor appoints members.

The agency faced turmoil last year when its director was dismissed amid accusations of “financial malfeasance, gross mismanagement and ethics violations.”