A tugboat captain has pleaded guilty to seaman’s manslaughter after a crash in Miami that killed three girls from a sailing camp.
Yusiel Lopez Insua, 47, was piloting a 25-foot (8-meter) tugboat pushing a construction barge across Biscayne Bay on July 28, 2025, when the barge slammed into a sailboat carrying a camp counselor and five girls.
The 108-foot-long (33-meter-long) barge was loaded with construction debris, bringing its total weight to about 149 gross tons. The vessel’s forward view was obstructed by a deckhouse and crane, and no crewmember had been assigned to serve as a lookout, according to prosecutors.
This prevented Lopez Insua from seeing the sailboat carrying the 19-year-old counselor and five girls ranging in age from 7 to 13. Their boat had lost wind and stalled in the tugboat’s path, investigators said.
The barge ran over the sailboat, submerging it beneath the barge’s hull. The counselor and two girls managed to escape, but three girls became trapped beneath the wreckage and drowned, officials said.
The Miami-Dade County Medical Examiner’s Office identified them as Mila Yankelevich, 7, and Erin Ko, 13. Several days later, the family of Arielle Buchman announced that she too had died as a result of the crash.
The children were in their last week of camp, Miami Yacht Club said.
A forensic review of Lopez Insua’s cellphone revealed internet activity while the tugboat was underway, including at or near the time of the collision.
He pleaded guilty Tuesday to seaman’s manslaughter, a charge that carries up to 10 years in federal prison. However, prosecutors have recommended a year in prison followed by six months of home detention as part of a plea agreement. A judge will make the final decision.
“Three children lost their lives in a tragedy that never should have happened,” U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida Jason Reding Quiñones said in a statement. “Yusiel Lopez Insua … admitted that his criminal failure to follow basic maritime safety rules caused this deadly collision. Our hearts remain with the children’s families and everyone whose lives were forever changed that day.”
Across the U.S. in 2024, there were over 550 deaths in recreational boating, but only 43 were caused by vessels crashing into each other, according to Coast Guard statistics.