"People have to know the regulations before getting behind the wheel of a boat," said Antonella Pindilli, who lives on the waterway 3 miles from the accident. "Unfortunately, people think it's a toy. I see boats come by all the time; some people have on life vests, some don't. Most of the time, children don't."
Many boaters know the Intracoastal stretch where the crash occurred, near 183 S. Roscoe Blvd., about a mile north of the Palm Valley Bridge, as "the ditch," a narrow, shallow area that even the Coast Guard finds difficult to navigate.
The stretch used to be marked as a slow-speed zone. But the signs were removed in the early 2000s because no state or federal laws allow marked slow-speed zones, said David Roach, executive director of the Florida Inland Navigation District, a state taxing authority that manages the waterway.
