New 911 calls are revealing the frantic moments after a personal watercraft crashed into a dock in Fort Lauderdale last week, leaving a teen girl dead and her sister hospitalized.
The calls were made shortly after the watercraft carrying 13-year-old Rachel Aliza Nisanov and her sister, 16-year-old Aviva Bracha Nisanov, struck a concrete dock in the Intracoastal Waterway on Aug. 12.
“A Jet Ski just crashed into a dock,” a man who witnessed the crash from a nearby condo told a dispatcher in one of the calls obtained by NBC6 on Tuesday. “They hit hard.”
An investigation is underway after a teen died and another was hospitalized after a personal watercraft they were on crashed in Fort Lauderdale. NBC6’s Niko Clemmons reports
The man also describes the rescue effort underway.
“There’s a couple of Jet Skis helping them out, but I’m in the building across the way so I can’t really see the person but they hit really really hard, I mean they were going fast,” he says. “They’re yelling and screaming so I’m assuming someone’s hurt pretty bad.”
Another call was made by a woman who was closer to where the crash happened.
“There’s a Waverunner accident, we’re on a canal, I don’t know where,” she says. “I just drove past it, it’s a two-person Waverunner accident, Jet Ski, they’re being helped by someone who was in a tree, I don’t know, I just pulled up, it looks like it capsized.”
Later in the call, she’s heard yelling at someone to get someone out of the water.
“Try to help lift him up, keep pulling, keep pulling,” she says. “They’re using a ladder.”
Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officials said the teens were among a group of three personal watercraft that were on a guided tour.
The teens’ watercraft jumped the wake of a passing vessel, lost control, and collided with the dock, FWC officials said.
Rachel Nisanov was killed in the collision, while her sister was hospitalized in critical but stable condition.
Family Photo
Family Photo Rachel Aliza Nisanov
Family members said the teens are from New York and were visiting Fort Lauderdale to celebrate Rachel Nisanov’s graduation.
Brother Yonah Nisanov said that when his sisters crashed, their father, who was also on a personal watercraft, jumped into the water to save them.
Their father, Shlomo Nisanov, is a well-known rabbi in New York.
Rachel Nisanov’s body was flown back to New York for a funeral on Thursday, before the body was flown to Israel for burial.
According to the owner of the watercraft company, the sisters, their parents and an employee supervising were on the watercrafts when the incident happened.
He told NBC6 that while Florida law allows someone who is 14 years old to operate a watercraft, he requires someone 16 or older to be the driver, which Aviva Nisanov was.
Fort Lauderdale Police officials said Friday that the sisters had been briefly stopped by officers for a safety issue before the fatal collision.
In New York, a family said their final goodbyes before sending off the body of a teen to Israel for a burial after she was tragically killed in a personal watercraft crash in Fort Lauderdale. NBC6’s Niko Clemmons reports
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by PostX News and is published from a syndicated feed.)
