{"id":214252,"date":"2026-04-01T08:40:29","date_gmt":"2026-04-01T08:40:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/214252\/"},"modified":"2026-04-01T08:40:29","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T08:40:29","slug":"captain-yusiel-lopez-insua-charged-in-boat-crash-that-killed-3-girls-from-miami-sailing-camp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/214252\/","title":{"rendered":"Captain Yusiel Lopez Insua charged in boat crash that killed 3 girls from Miami sailing camp"},"content":{"rendered":"

A tugboat captain has been charged in a\u00a0deadly Miami collision\u00a0that killed three girls from a sailing camp<\/a>, federal prosecutors said Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Yusiel Lopez Insua, 46, of Miami, faces a charge of seaman\u2019s manslaughter in the July collision, according to a statement from US Attorney\u2019s Office for the Southern District of Florida.<\/p>\n

Insua didn\u2019t have a clear view as the tugboat pushed a barge full of construction debris in Biscayne Bay, according to the office. <\/p>\n

Yusiel Lopez Insua, 46, of Miami, was piloting a tugboat pushing a barge loaded with construction debris across Biscayne Bay on July 28, 2025. U.S. Attorney’s Office, Southern District of Florida<\/p>\n

There was also no one assigned as lookout as it sailed through the body of water sandwiched between Miami and Miami Beach, the office said.<\/p>\n

The sailboat was carrying a counselor and five girls when it stalled in the barge\u2019s path, and Insua didn\u2019t see it before the collision, according to the statement. The girls were ages 7 to 13, while the counselor was 19<\/a>, according to the US Coast Guard.<\/p>\n

The counselor and two girls were dragged under the barge, but were able to escape. The other three became trapped in the wreckage and drowned, according to the office.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur hearts are with the families of the children who lost their lives in this tragedy,\u201d Jason Reding Qui\u00f1ones, the US attorney for the Southern District of Florida, said in a statement. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis information alleges a preventable loss of life on our waterways, including the failure to follow basic maritime safety rules and cellphone use during transit at or near the time of the collision.\u201d<\/p>\n

The vessel\u2019s forward view was obstructed by a deckhouse and crane, and no one aboard was assigned as a lookout. U.S. Attorney’s Office, Southern District of Florida<\/p>\n

The internet had also been accessed on Insua\u2019s cellphone around the time of the collision<\/a>, according to a forensic review.<\/p>\n

Insua faces up to 10 years in federal prison if convicted.<\/p>\n

The Miami-Dade Public Defender\u2019s Office and the US Attorney\u2019s Office for the Southern District of Florida did not immediately respond to queries about whether Insua has a lawyer.<\/p>\n

High-rise buildings at the mouth of the Miami River are seen from Biscayne Bay, May 9, 2022, in Miami. AP<\/p>\n

Four of the children were rushed to a hospital, where a 7-year-old and 13-year-old were pronounced dead, according to the US Coast Guard. <\/p>\n

Days later, the Coast Guard said that a 10-year-old who had been in critical condition had also died.<\/p>\n

The sailing boat had been submerged beneath the barge in Biscayne Bay, where there are several small islands, including Star Island, peppered with ritzy mansions.<\/p>\n

The children were in their last week of camp, according to the Miami Yacht Club.<\/p>\n

Across the US in 2024, there were over 550 deaths in recreational boating, but only a sliver of those \u2014 43 \u2014 were caused by vessels crashing into each other, according to Coast Guard statistics.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A tugboat captain has been charged in a\u00a0deadly Miami collision\u00a0that killed three girls from a sailing camp, federal…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":214253,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[9271,28,2627,123,125,124,4278],"class_list":{"0":"post-214252","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-miami","8":"tag-boat-crashes","9":"tag-florida","10":"tag-manslaughter","11":"tag-miami","12":"tag-miami-headlines","13":"tag-miami-news","14":"tag-us-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214252","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=214252"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214252\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/214253"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=214252"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=214252"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=214252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}