Miami-Beach-Urges-the-U.S.-Coast-Guard
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City of Miami Beach, 1700 Convention Center Drive, Miami Beach, FL 33139, www.miamibeachfl.gov
MARKETING & COMMUNICATIONS DEPARTMENT, Tel: 305.673.7575 PRESS RELEASE
Tonya Daniels, E-mail: tonyadaniels@miamibeachfl.gov
Melissa Berthier, E-mail: melissaberthier@miamibeachfl.gov
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 24, 2019
Miami Beach Urges the U.S. Coast Guard
to Assess the Safety of Government Cut
—Latest Boating Accident Leaves Three People Dead—
Miami Beach, FL –The City of Miami Beach Commission is once again requesting the
U.S. Coast Guard to conduct a focused safety waterway analysis and management
system review of the Government Cut inlet, following the deaths of six people since
2016. In all fatalities the boats collided with the north rock jetty.
Last Sunday, April 22 a boating accident killed husband and wife Christopher and
Elisaine Colgan, 28-year-old Jennifer Munoz Cadavid and seriously injured 37-year-old
Troy Forte.
“Something must be done—six lives have been lost in less than three years in the same
area,” said Miami Beach Mayor Dan Gelber.
In 2016, City Manager Jimmy Morales sent a letter requesting that the U.S. Coast Guard
initiate a comprehensive safety review of the South Pointe jetty to improve its visibility
and the channel’s safety. One month prior, on September 25, 2016, Miami Marlins
pitcher José Fernández died in a boating accident at Government Cut. The open console
boat hit the north jetty and capsized, killing Fernández and two other men on board, 25-
year-old Eduardo Rivero, and 27-year-old Emilio Macias, the son of a Miami-Dade police
detective.
The operation of Government Cut falls upon three government agencies: The U.S Coast
Guard, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and The Port of Miami. In 2017, the U.S.
Coast Guard conducted a Miami Main Channel Focused Waterway Analysis and
Management System review and concluded that the current buoys and ranges marking
the Miami Main Channel are sufficient and that adding additional aids to navigation for
the jetties would not conform to navigation standards and could possibly confuse
mariners due to existing lighted buoys.
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