A man watched the group of personal watercraft from his condo across the Intracoastal Waterway in Fort Lauderdale.
He saw no passing boats near the three watercraft that were riding in the middle of the waterway, he told a 911 dispatcher. What he watched was “strange,” he said. One appeared to slow down to make a turn, “and then they gunned it.”
The 911 calls released Tuesday provide new details of the Aug. 12 crash that resulted in the death of 13-year-old Rachel Nisanov and critical injuries of her 16-year-old sister Aviva, who was driving the watercraft. Aviva and Rachel were together on one of the rented vehicles about 3:30 p.m. while their parents rode together on another.
A total of three personal watercraft were operating at the time of the crash “as part of a guided tour,” Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission spokesperson Arielle Callender previously said. The girls’ vehicle jumped a wake caused by a vessel going by, lost control and hit a concrete dock, she said.
“The other jet ski that was with that person, they weren’t, it’s not like they avoided each other or anything like that,” the 911 caller said. “Whoever crashed, crashed completely just on their own without anything else being around there.”
In the 13 minutes of calls, witnesses described seeing the personal watercraft traveling fast in the water the moment before the crash and people trying to pull the girls out of the water after colliding with the concrete dock.
The man who called 911 told the dispatcher the vehicle crashed about 30 seconds earlier.
“They hit really, really hard,” the man told the dispatcher. “I mean, they were going fast.”
He said he could see at least one person in the water while the other watercraft circled nearby. Workers on the dock at the home at the end of the 2800 block of Northeast 24th Court, closest to the water, appeared to be pulling the person out of the water, according to the 911 call. He couldn’t tell if the person was moving or not.
“They just kind of hit the dock on their own,” he said.
“But they hit it hard?” the dispatcher asked.
“Oh yeah,” he said. “Yeah … Big smash.”
The teens’ parents, Shlomo Nisanov and his wife, rushed to the girls who were prone in the water and helped to get them out, according to a Broward County Medical Examiner’s Office investigator’s report released Tuesday. His wife screamed for someone to call 911.
“It looks like they’re on the dock now,” the man who called 911 said. “But they’re yelling and screaming, so I’m assuming someone’s hurt pretty bad.”
Rachel arrived at the emergency room at Broward Health Medical Center at 4 p.m. with head trauma, according to the medical examiner’s office report. Staff worked on the girl for more than 20 minutes before she was pronounced dead.
She died from blunt force injuries, and her manner of death was determined an accident, Thomas Steinkamp, Broward County Medical Examiner’s Office Chief of Investigative Services, said in an email Friday.
At some point before the crash, Fort Lauderdale Police’s Marine Unit were on their way to a separate call and briefly stopped the girls “in reference to a minor wake violation,” police department spokesperson Casey Liening said Tuesday.
Liening previously said the marine officers saw the watercraft “making a minor violation therefore they briefly stopped the occupants to discuss safety.” There is no documentation of the “brief” and “proactive” interaction, Liening said.
The maximum speed allowed in that area of the Intracoastal is 30 mph and the maximum wake 15 inches, according to an FWC state boating safety zones map.
A Broward Health Medical Center spokesperson did not immediately return an email seeking an update Tuesday afternoon on Aviva’s condition.
The owner of the company who rented the personal watercraft to the family declined to comment when reached by a reporter last week. The company does not have any history of lawsuits in Broward County, according to court records.
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