FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Family members paid their final respects Thursday to a 13-year-old girl killed in a personal watercraft crash in the Intracoastal Waterway on Tuesday.
Rochel Nisanov’s funeral was held in Israel. She was killed and her 16-year-old sister, Aviva, was hurt when investigators said they jumped the wake of a passing boat before losing control and slamming into a concrete dock near the 2900 block of Northeast 24th Court, between the Oakland Park and Sunrise Boulevard bridges.
Their parents were following behind on another watercraft and rushed to help.
“I didn’t come to Florida to bury my daughter,” their father, prominent Rabbi Shlomo Nisanov said through tears. “I came to Florida to have a good time with her and now I have to take her back in a casket. It’s not the way I imagined my vacation.”
Aviva awoke Thursday in the hospital. Her father said her first words were, “Where is my sister?”
Esteban Granados, the owner of Prime Watersports, the Fort Lauderdale-based company that rented out the vessels, spoke to Local 10 News about the crash on Wednesday.
Granados said the family rented two personal watercrafts Tuesday afternoon and had no prior experience operating them.
“It was their first time,” Granados said. “That’s why I was stressing all the safety instructions to them.”
He said the girls completed an online boater safety course hosted on his company’s website, which is legally required in Florida for anyone born on or after Jan. 1, 1988, to operate a personal watercraft.
Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission officials say they’re investigating whether the teen was properly certified and whether other vessels followed navigation rules.
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