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Subscribe to RSSInvestigators on New York's Long Island say they are look at the possibility of whether overcrowding and not enough life vests played a role in the drowning deaths of three children after the boat they were on capsized. NBC's Craig Melvin reports.
Investigators are trying to learn more about the crucial seconds before a yacht capsized off Long Island, killing three children and leaving 24 others scrambling for their lives.
The July Fourth accident has left more questions than answers in the search for a definitive cause. Investigators are counting on gaining knowledge from survivors and the boat itself once it is brought up from 60 feet below the surface of Long Island Sound.
Efforts to raise the boat might begin as early as Friday.
Authorities said several possibilities might have combined to doom the vessel known as Candi 1 as it was being positioned so passengers could watch fireworks.
Nassau County Detective Lt. John Azzata said the cause remained under investigation but possibilities include the weather, overcrowding and a wake from another vessel. He said the area was busy with boaters watching the fireworks.
The boat's skipper, Sal Aureliano, has told TV's News12 Long Island that he saw two lightning bolts and then a wave suddenly hit the 34-foot boat off Oyster Bay, on the north shore of Long Island.
"It turned the boat around," he said, his voice cracking. "It just turned the boat. I didn't see it. It was dark. I didn't see it."
"The next thing I know, we're turning, and we just kept turning, and everybody was in the water. It was chaos," said Aureliano, who didn't answer the door to The Associated Press.
Authorities said the children who died got trapped in the cabin.
Killed were Aureliano's nephew David Aureliano, 12, and two girls, 11-year-old Harley Treanor and 8-year-old Victoria Gaines. No serious injuries were reported by the 24 other adult-and-children passengers who were rescued from the water, mostly by fellow boaters.
The Silverton yacht was built in 1984 but purchased recently. The yacht company filed for bankruptcy in April, and no one was available to say what the maximum number aboard should be.
The boat's owner is Kevin Treanor, said attorney James Mercante, who was hired by an insurance company to represent him. Mercante said he had not spoken with Treanor but emphasized Treanor wasn't the yacht's operator when the accident occurred.
Three kids dead after yacht capsizes off Long Island
Telephone calls to Treanor's home and work telephones went unanswered Thursday night.
Police and the Coast Guard would not say how many of those aboard were adults and how many were children. Safety experts said most boats have a manufacturer's plate that lists capacity by number of adults and by total weight. So theoretically, a boat could safely handle more passengers if some were children.
Richard Drew / AP
Two police boats are stationed near the opening to Long Island Sound in Lloyd Harbor, N.Y., as investigators try to learn more about the crucial seconds before a yacht capsized off Long Island.
Phil Cusumano, a Boston-based safety instructor and yacht captain with 35 years of experience, said there is no question the boat was badly overloaded. He said he would limit a vessel of that size to six adults. Other boating sites suggested a maximum of 15 passengers.
"Twenty-seven is just crazy," Cusumano said. "I wouldn't dream of doing that. I wouldn't do it at the dock, much less take it out on the water. It would tip over with the first turn."
Each Fourth of July, vessels crowd the Long Island Sound shoreline to watch public and private fireworks displays. When the shows end, the exodus can be the nautical equivalent of a highway traffic jam.
Scott Menzies, who said he positioned his 20-foot motor boat in the area to take in the celebration but did not see the accident, estimated there were at least 1,000 vessels on the water.
"It was pretty crazy," he said.
However, conditions on the water were calm during the fireworks and afterward, Menzies said.
Though there was some rain around 10 p.m., conditions were in "no way bad enough" to capsize a large boat on their own, said David Waldo, an expert boater who was also on the water Wednesday night.
Waldo, executive director of the WaterFront Center, a nonprofit sailing school in Oyster Bay, called the number of people aboard the yacht "alarming." School sailboats around the same length have a capacity of seven, he said.
"It's just asking for a situation where things can go wrong and compound on themselves," he said.
Another boater told Newsday he saw the yacht turn and then tip over after it was hit by a wake.
"It was like in slow motion," said Sammy Balasso, of Oyster Bay. "All of a sudden, a lot of bodies were in the water."
Balasso said he put the spotlight of his 38-foot speedboat on the capsized vessel and threw all the life jackets he had into the water. He said he rescued 20 people.
"Everybody was panicking," Balasso said. "People were saying things like 'Why?'"
Azzata said the boat should have had a life jacket for each person on board, but it was unclear if it did. Under state law, children under 12 are not required to wear life vests if they are in the main cabin, where the three victims were.
Mike Treanor, who was related to some of the victims, answered the door at his suburban home in nearby Huntington.
"It's a family tragedy," he said.
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Leave a Comment:
If true, a classic case of gross negligence.
all i keep thinking about, no matter who is to blame, is what it felt like for the three children in the cabin, who suddenly got turned upside down, began to drowned , and then realized there was no way out~
lawsuits, lawyers, blame....it does not matter.
that moment is what matters.
Did my homework. My research shows from a variety of boating web sites that most boats in this class only seat 12 to 15 passengers. So I guess the question is why would you have that many more pasengers than you have seats? So this boat was overloaded. My condolences to the families of thoses lost.
Yes the "Captain" of the boat is ultimately responsible. But the other adults must bear some of that responsiblity as well, if not legally, then morally. What adult in their right mind would get on a boat that is obviously becoming over crowded and take their kids and Grandma with them. I'm not a sailor, but even I can tell when a boat is overloaded. It's no different really then getting in a car with a drunk behind the wheel. At what point do the smart cells ignite and you say "That's ok I'll watch from here." Hard lesson learned for the survivors. Condolences to the families. May the little ones RIP.
Actually, the OWNER of a boat is ultimately responsible even if not on board. Yes, The operator/captain has responsibility too as do the passengers and whomever was responsible for the children.
To parents and anyone who owns a boat, the OWNER is fully responsible no matter who is operating it. So when you let your kids take the boat out without you....
Was the boat overloaded????? DUH, anyone with half a brain would agree. And making the kids go below deck was stupidity at its finest. The kids parents AND the boat owner/captain should be prosecuted for child endangerment.
Look at the boat. Think center of gravity. You can't repeal the laws of physics.
Captain just wanted to be BMOC. He was, for about 2 1/2 minutes.
IMO
A good skipper, even an unlicensed one, would expect that the Sound on the 4th would be choppy and full of boat wakes. Any body of water where fireworks could be viewed is always full of boaters not obeying the speed limits. The boat was obviously overloaded. They should have counted the life jackets to determine the capacity of the boat before they started out and then subtract a few for the conditions (rough water due to the boat wakes and weather). I would have felt comfortable having no more than 10 - 12 people on that boat, and I would keep my eye on them and make sure they didn't all stand on the same side of the boat. You have to explain the rules to people right when they get on a boat. The parents with children have to make the children keep their life jackets on at all times, even if the law does not require it. If a child falls overboard in the dark, they are difficult to locate and retrieve without a life jacket. There are just certain things people have to understand out on the water, and as the skipper or captain, it is your sole responsibility to provide the information to everyone on board and keep control of everyone. If you're not willing and able to do it, don't leave the dock.
I believe this skipper is guilty of a crime. That crime isn't murder but it is negligence. If this skipper was being paid, he is liable. He and the company were clearly negligent. It wasn't murder, but it was negligence, and if you look up the definition, this fits the bill: The failure to do something that a reasonable person would do...
Being paid can mean that ONE of the passengers brought food, drinks, ice, chipped in for fuel, offered a trade, swapped the ride for a w/e at a beach house, etc.... and if the operator was not a licensed Captain... big trouble. The license for that many people is difficult to get.
AND the OWNER is also responsible. Funny how many boaters do not know that.
There is not an experienced boater out there that thinks this boat wasn't grossly overloaded. There is no way that I would load more than 12 people in a 34 foot boat. Especially one headed out on the ocean. This person had just recently purchased this old boat (probably cheaply) and had no idea how to operate it safely. Considering that according to witnesses the boat tipped over "slowly" I am willing to bet that the idiot (the boat had no captain on board) in charge allowed way to many people to get up on the fly bridge to watch the fire works. Ever try to stand up in a canoe? The same thing happens when you have too many people 8+ feet above the water in a fairly small boat. You end up in the water. As far as this being a "yacht" I recently heard a good way to tell if you are on a yacht. If the boat moves when you step on board it is NOT a yacht. Trust me when I say there is no 34 foot boat made that doesn't move when you get on board.
How would more life jackets have saved the kids that were trapped in the cabin?? This boat was overcrowded which caused it to topple over more easily when that wave came along. The lightning alone wouldn't have done that according to what the uncle said (a bolt then a big wave). This overcrowding sounds like how Mexican illegals pack into a van and cross over the border. Haven't they learned anything? Oh yeah, they're Mexican.
I have boated on Long Island Sound many times and there are no waves
Carl, please tell me you didn't mean to write that.
Carl, your "many times" on LIS must have been on "many" calm days.
No waves? now thats just plain foolish talk...
When I worked in Greenwich, I'd seen boats rip right off thier moorings just from the waves in the Sound, and blow on up the Mianus River for a mile.
Lightening does NOT cause waves.
My dad use to have a 65 foot Viking. I can't even imagine that many people on that size boat. We would have 14 on board and that started getting tight. But the 4th is a bad day for going out to see fireworks via boat. Everyone and their brother is out there. And 1/2 are usually drunk. It was just a really bad idea from the start.
One factor that was not mentioned as a possible cause is that the 27 people were watching a fireworks display and it could very well be that all the passengers were on the SAME SIDE of the boat. Such a misplacement of weight would almost definitely be catastrophic on a 34 foot boat, even one with a deep draft and good ballast. It happens frequently in the Pacific Islands with their cock-a-mamie ferries if you recall.
Tragically 3 children are gone and the Lawyers are swarming to the scene before they are even buried.
Greed in the country has been raised to the lowest level
How do you "Raise" something to the lowest level?
I am so sorry for the kids. What an awful fate, to be trapped underwater in a cabin as it fills with water. Children wouldn't question the safe capacity of a boat. they trust the adults would not put them in such an unsafe situation. I think ALL the adults on board should be held somewhat responsible. I know I wouldn't get on a 28 year old, 34 foot boat, with 26 other people. And I wouldn't knowingly put my child on a boat like that. Punish every one of those people for this. Don't let ignorance be an excuse for dead children. Everybody wants to have fun, and I'm sure thats what they set out for, but you can't ignore common sense at the expense of young lives. Three dead children, because of 24 stupid people.
Why? If an adult on board is not the legal guardian of one or more of the children, how is he or she responsible? If I'm going to be held responsible for someone else's children, I want a say in their discipline, their education, their choice of college, etc.... OK?
The kids get a pass here. After all they were helpless victims. I can't fathom the total lack of common sense the other 24 showed in piling onto this 34' boat like flies mindlessly landing on a steaming turd.
<snippet>Under state law, children under 12 are not required to wear life vests if they are in the main cabin, where the three victims were. </snippet>
Yet THEY were the ones that died.
The law exists to prevent accidental drowning from children falling overboard, not to save people in the event the boat itself sinks. There is no risk of falling over the side of the boat while in the main cabin. If passengers became trapped in the main cabin when the boat sank then wearing a life jacket wouldn't have saved them anyway and may actually have impeded attempts to escape.
The whole thing is a tragedy but NY state law is not to blame.
This boat was so over loaded it is a wonder it did not sink before it left the pier. In a crowed area the speed is 6 knots. After dark all boats must have visible lights on whether anchored or not. Following the rules of the sea could have prevented this tragedy.
This was an older boat. 1984 they said. It was definitely not suited for 27 people. We can disagree about a lot of reasons why this happened. But, the boat was DEFINITELY over capacity. There is no 34 foot boat, new or old, that would list 27 people as safe capacity. NO WAY! Thats a lot of people in my 15' x 30' family room. Most people would fear 27 people standing on a deck, that it could collapse. Think about it, there may have been somewhere around 2 TONS of weight on that old boat. Thats being generous, and averaging each person at only 150 lbs.
The boat was 28 years old. Just as with airplanes, boats of that age are not "old" if they're well-maintained and updated.
Barry, you obviously don't know boats. I own a 1986, 24 foot Century, I have on a lake in NH. It is well maintained, with low hours, YET, it is still an OLD boat. trust me, this boat, even if pristine, is not for 27 people. I know a boater on the lake who has a 1984, Silverton 34C, with twin 270 Crusaders. I believe it is same boat that capsized. It is also in very nice shape. He bought it a couple years ago for 17K.. These are NOT high end yachts. They are are nice day cruisers, or weekenders. With the correct weight and capacity, they are very solid and stable boats. They are not made to have 27 people on board.
i
Shawn ... I never implied that the boat was suitable for 27 people, just that age isn't necessarily a factor. That same boat could have been built last week and it would still be inappropriate for put 27 people on her.
Barry, I stand corrected. I also believe there is no way there should have been 27 people onboard. Not at dock, and certainly not underway. This is not about a 1984 Silverton 34C (very nice boats by the way) its about unsafe operation. Putting 27 people on that boat is callous, and at the very least, the Captain of that boat should be held libal for the three children drowning. An avoidable tragedy, should not be considered an accident. You have to use common sense, when others lives are involved. He did not use common sense. Hindsight is 20/20. I bet everybody on that boat, is wondering what the hell they were thinking. You could not be on that boat with 26 others, and not realize it was over capacity.
Shawn ... how true. I would think that more than one person on board was concerned about the overcrowding, but there's probably some sort of group dynamic that prevented anyone from leaving. After all, who wants to look like a worrier? Most of the time, stupid behavior doesn't lead to tragedy, after all.
But, in reading your post, a thought occurred to me. I wonder if there were people who were supposed to be on the boat who either didn't board, or left the boat, because of the overcrowding?
Well, with people who have exhaustible income and little brains, they immediately go out and buy whatever they get their hands on and tragedy's like this happen!!!!
Your comment makes no sense. How does buying this boat translate into this tragedy? Are you claiming that they bought the wrong boat? Which brand of 35 foot boat should they have bought?
starfox, I can probably bet that a 28 year old Silverton is not a vintage "big money" yacht. If they said it was a Hinkley, Bertram, or Egg Harbor, then you might think it was stupid rich people with "exhaustable income" It was probably bought cheap, needed work (as they all do) and even if it were in excellent shape, it isn't the kind of boat you set off with 27 people aboard. This seems more like a case of uneducated boaters, who do not know (or care) about the safe operation of a boat. Trying to have a little party on the water, and not smart enough to know what a overcrowded, overweight boat can do. I'd call it Tragic Stupidity! Not everyone should be allowed drive a car, and not everyone should operate a boat.
People who are saying the boat can only hold 5 or 6 have no idea what they are talking about. That boat is designed to sleep 6. It should hold 10 or 12 with no problem. 27 however is way over loaded, the captain must either be inexperienced or a damn fool.
One queation-did any of these idiots have a F----ing life jacket on? Bet not!
I don't understand the law that says children under 12 don't need a life vest if they are in the cabin. This is a prime example of why that particular law should be changed.
Mom ... perhaps the article wasn't clear. Here's what it said:
It should have expounded on that by pointing out that life vests are required for EVERYONE and that children under 13 (I think it is 13, not 12) are required to wear their vests at ALL times, except when they're in the cabin. That exemption makes sense. Why would you (how could you) require someone to wear a life vest when they are below decks and not in danger of being washed or falling overboard? Would you have them wear the life vests to bed?
Of course, since the children were apparently trapped below deck, a life vest probably wouldn't have helped them, especially since the boat eventually sank.
The captain deserves to be charged with manslaughter. That many people on a boat is criminal and he knows it for sure. I would not put that many people on a 42 ft boat.
Could have gotten a few more New Yorkers on there.
When I put 6 or 8 people in my 24 footer, which has a fairly good running 350 Mercruiser, it takes 30 seconds just to get it up on plane. I have people step up to the center, and I've even have the kids go sit down in the front cuddy until I get it leveled. So, even with twin 270 Cruisaders (which most Silverton 34s of that era have) she must have been slugging along like a rowboat with 27 people onboard. You had to know the boat was not right. You had to feel it..
Why does it seem only morons buy boats???