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A US Coast Guard vessel is seen next to a barge that hit a sailboat that sank off Miami Beach\u2019s Hibiscus Island in Biscayne Bay Monday morning, July 28, 2025. Five children and a camp counselor were aboard the sailboat, part of a Miami Yacht Club summer camp. Three of the girl capers died from the collision.<\/p>\n
Pedro Portal<\/p>\n
pportal@miamiherald.com<\/p>\n
The captain of the tugboat pushing a large construction barge that crashed into a sailboat full of summer campers, killing three young girls last summer, has been charged with their deaths.<\/p>\n
Yusiel Lopez Insua, 46, was charged with seaman\u2019s manslaughter for operating the barge with obstructed visibility and without assigning a proper lookout, according to a document filed in Miami federal court Tuesday. He faces 10 years in prison if convicted. U.S. Coast Guard investigators in October had recommended the charge.<\/p>\n
Prosecutors also said in the charging document that Insua\u2019s cellphone was unlocked in the wheelhouse, and he was \u201con internet marketplaces, including at the time the collision occurred,\u201d the document states. Prosecutors said Insua\u2019s view was obstructed by the cargo, a deckhouse and crane on the barge.<\/p>\n
Mila Yankelevich,<\/a> 7, Erin Victoria Ko Han,<\/a> 13, and Arielle \u2018Ari\u2019 Mazi Buchman<\/a>, 10, were trapped beneath the barge tangled in the wreckage of the 17-foot Hobie Getaway sailboat after the crash, and they died from drowning.<\/p>\n READ MORE: \u2018We were screaming and screaming.\u2019 Witnesses watch as barge hits sailboat of campers<\/a><\/p>\n A 19-year-old camp counselor, and two other girls, ages 7 and 8, were also on the sailboat, but survived. The five girls were attending sailboat camp at the Miami Yacht Club at the time of the deadly crash, which happened around 11 a.m. July 28.<\/p>\n Both young girls who survived were seriously injured. One of them, 7-year-old Calena Areyan Gruber, was trapped underneath the barge, but managed to swim to safety.<\/p>\n Justin B. Shapiro, an attorney representing the Gruber family, said the move to seek criminal charges was a \u201cmeaningful step toward justice.\u201d<\/p>\n The Ko family declined to comment when reached by the Herald on Wednesday but say they are allowing the prosecution to take its process.<\/p>\n READ MORE: \u2018It\u2019s a miracle she\u2019s alive.\u2019 Girl injured in boat crash was trapped under barge<\/a><\/p>\n It was not immediately clear Tuesday whether Insua had been arrested.<\/p>\n His attorney, Walter A. Reynoso, released a statement to NBC 6 South Florida<\/a> saying that Insua \u201cintends to accept responsibility for his conduct and to resolve the case in a way that avoids causing the families any further unnecessary pain or anguish.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cOur client remains deeply saddened by the tragic boating accident that resulted in the loss of three young lives,\u201d Reynoso said. \u201cHe extends his heartfelt condolences to the families and loved ones of the victims, while recognizing that no words can lessen the pain caused by this terrible tragedy.\u201d<\/p>\n According to the charging document, Insua was operating a 25-foot tugboat pushing a 108-foot-long, 149-gross ton construction barge. They were part of a crew disassembling a seawall at a home on Star Island, the document states.<\/p>\n The barge was hauling concrete debris to an empty lot on Di Lido Island in Miami Beach across the bay.<\/p>\n Prosecutors said that the area of Biscayne Bay the tug was transitting was known to be busy with sailboats and that Insua had several \u201cnear misses\u201d in the days prior to the collision.<\/p>\n There were two crewmen on the barge, and neither was assigned as a lookout, prosecutors said.<\/p>\n The charging document also states the sailboat lost wind propulsion, and Insua did not reverse course or slow down before crashing into the small boat. Prosecutors also said the counselor, who was operating the sailboat, stood up and tried to alert the tug captain that her craft was in the barge\u2019s path.<\/p>\n The parents of the three girls who died sued Waterfront Construction, the Miami company that owns the tug and barge. The owner of the company, Jorge Rivas, has not been charged in the crash.<\/p>\n READ MORE: Parents of three girls who died in barge-sailboat crash sue barge company<\/a><\/p>\n The sailboat was among the first boats to leave the Miami Yacht Club\u2019s dock near the MacArthur Causeway and head east in Biscayne Bay toward Hibiscus Island in Miami Beach that morning, the suit says. The weather was clear and the water calm on that Monday morning, but the barge \u201cmade no attempts to slow down or change its course,\u201d the lawsuit alleges.<\/p>\n Judd Rosen, an attorney representing the family of the other girl who survived but was seriously injured, applauded the charge when reached Tuesday.<\/p>\n \u201cA commercial tug captain has to pay attention and keep his eyes on the water. One criminal act of carelessness has ruined the lives of innocent families,\u201d Rosen said. His clients do not have pending lawsuit against the company.<\/p>\n \u201cAlthough we can\u2019t change the past, justice can help bring comfort to the suffering,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n This is a developing story and will be updated.<\/p>\n This story was originally published March 31, 2026 at 4:49 PM.<\/p>\n![\"An](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/IMG_Mila-boat_3_1_FBQAKT9R_L885795458.JPG\" "\\"IMG_Mila-boat_3_1_FBQAKT9R_L885795458.JPG\\"")
An Instagram post celebrating Mila Yankelevich by her grandmother Cristina Morena, a well-known Argentine TV producer. Mila, 7, was one of three Miami Yacht Club campers who died when a barge slammed into their sailboat in Biscayne Bay last summer. Instagram <\/p>\n Erin Victoria Ko Han, 13, one of the three girls who died when a barge, being pushed by a tugboat captain, slammed into a Miami Yacht Club sailboat in July 2025 off Miami Beach. Courtesy of the Ko family. Tugboat captain had other \u2018near misses,\u2019 prosecutors say<\/p>\n
Ari Buchman, 10, had been dancing at Mady\u2019s Dance Factory for nearly two years before she died after a barge slammed into a Miami Yacht Club sailboat in Biscayne Bay off Miami Beach on July 28, 2025. No lookout on barge: feds<\/p>\n
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