Man arrested in what FWC investigator says was hit-and-run boat crash off Miami

Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission police officers arrested on Thursday a man who was at the helm of a boat that crashed into another vessel in August and left the scene without rendering aid or calling for help, according to his arrest report.

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Juan Carlos Romero, 42, was operating his three-engine, 36-foot Deep Impact center console through the Intracoastal Waterway in Biscayne Bay just south of the Julia Tuttle Causeway around 2:45 a.m. on Aug 16 when he rammed into the back of a 26-foot Sea Ray boat, according to the FWC.

One of the passengers on the Sea Ray had to be taken to Jackson Memorial Hospital with serious injuries, including a lacerated spleen, which had to be removed, fractured ribs, a fractured spine and bruising to the lining of the lungs. The names of the people on that boat were redacted from the FWC report.

Romero turned his boat around but did not stop, according to the report. His attorney, Scott Egleston, told a judge during bond court Friday that Romero and his two occupants did not stop because the people on the damaged boat were yelling at them and making threats.

Egleston could not be immediately reached for comments.

Security-camera footage obtained by investigators showed Romero’s boat traveling through a canal to where he rents a slip on the 1800 block of Keystone Boulevard in North Miami, according to the FWC. That’s where investigators found the boat, which was heavily damaged, and its right-side engine was covered with trash bags and duct tape, the report states.

FWC divers found fresh damage to the hull, along with paint that matched that of the Sea Ray, according to the report.

Investigators reviewed data from Romero’s GPS, and it showed that he was traveling at 57 mph, which is fast for a boat, right up to the moment of the crash, the report states. That area of the Intracoastal Waterway has a posted speed limit of 30 mph, investigators noted in the report.

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Footage of the crash was also captured on a fixed Miami Police Department camera in the Intracoastal Waterway, according to the report.

Judge Mindy Glazer set Romero’s bond at $30,000 on charges of leaving the scene of a boating accident that caused serious bodily injury, reckless boating causing serious bodily injury and tampering with physical evidence. On Friday afternoon, Romero was being held at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center.

Reckless boating resulting in serious bodily harm became a third-degree felony after the passage of Lucy’s Law last year, named for Luciana “Lucy” Fernandez, who was killed in a Sept. 4, 2022, boating crash in Biscayne Bay near Key Largo.

Her parents pushed for tougher boating laws, not only because of their daughter’s death but because her friend, Katerina “Katy” Puig, sustained permanent neurological and physical injuries after the boat driven by Doral real estate broker George Pino crashed into a channel marker near Ocean Reef Club that day.

A jury in June found Pino not guilty of charges of manslaughter and felony vessel homicide.

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Miami Herald Staff Writer Grethel Aguila contributed to this report.