The parents of the three Miami Yacht Club summer campers who were killed last summer when a 60-foot barge slammed into their sailboat sued the company that owns the barge, alleging negligence and irresponsible hiring.
The wrongful death lawsuit, filed Dec. 29 against Waterfront Construction, states that on the morning of July 28, 2025, Mila Yankelevich, 7, Erin Ko, 13, Arielle Buchman, 10, and Calena Areyan Gruber, a 7-year-old who survived the crash, boarded a 17-foot Hobie Getaway sailboat to “learn the basics of sailing under the supervision and guidance of a camp counselor.”
The sailboat, carrying five girl campers and a 19-year-old female camp counselor, was among the first boats to leave the Miami Yacht Club’s dock near the MacArthur Causeway and head east toward Hibiscus Island in Biscayne Bay, according to the suit. The weather was clear and the water calm, but the barge being pushed by a tugboat “made no attempts to slow down or change its course,” as it became clear a collision was imminent, the suit alleges…