FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — A family vacation turned into tragedy when two sisters riding a personal watercraft slammed into a dock in Fort Lauderdale, killing 13-year-old Rachel Nisavov and injuring her 16-year-old sister, Aviva Nisavov, according to a rabbi close to the family.
“They came here on vacation,” said Rabbi Mark Rosenberg, a Florida Highway Patrol chaplain and close family friend.
“All four on two different Jet Skis. The Jet Ski that the two sisters were riding on … they lost control and they drove into the dock,“ he said. ”Both girls fell off the Jet Ski and into the water. The father and mother desperately tried to save their two daughters.”
The crash happened just after 3:30 p.m. Tuesday near the 2900 block of Northeast 24th Court, between the Oakland Park and Sunrise Boulevard bridges.
Fort Lauderdale Fire Rescue officials said the sisters were “riding in tandem” on a single vessel when it struck a dock.
Sky 10 video showed a blue watercraft against the dock minutes after the collision.
Fire rescue crews responded and tried to save the girls, Rosenberg said.
He said Rachel was taken to the hospital but died shortly afterward. Aviva remains hospitalized in stable condition.
Rosenberg said the girls’ parents were riding a separate jet ski at the time of the crash.
“The father … he says he looked and they were gone,” Rosenberg said. “He had to see the accident with his children. He was in the water with his wife on a different jet ski.”
The Nisavov family is from New York and had been vacationing in South Florida.
Rachel was just one month shy of her 14th birthday.
Rosenberg said her body has been released from the medical examiner’s office and will be returned to New York for a funeral before burial in Israel.
As of Wednesday, the business that reportedly rented the watercraft was not operating, according to neighboring shops.
No other details about the crash were immediately released.
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