MARATHON, Fla. – Family members have identified the victims of a deadly personal watercraft crash in Marathon Tuesday evening as a man and his young son.
Jose Dominguez and his son, Daniel Dominguez, were killed when the watercraft crashed into a sea wall along a mobile home park in the area of 15th Street Ocean at around 6:45 p.m.
Residents jumped into the water to help and people at nearby Castaway Waterfront Restaurant & Sushi Bar called 911.
“I just heard it and then I heard the crash and it was demonstrative,” mobile home park property manager Ed Kiefer said. “It was like two cars hitting head-on.”
Kiefer said “the little boy was hollering and screaming in pain.”
Family members said Daniel was just 8 years old. They said the Dominguezes recently moved to the Florida Keys from Miami because of how much they loved the area.
Video obtained by Local 10 News shows the watercraft rounding a canal just before the crash.
Witnesses said they saw watercraft out all day and they believed it was going too fast at times.
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission is investigating the crash.
“It was a Jet Ski with a young boy on board and his father, they somehow lost control of the Jet Ski, collided with a sea wall and incidentally due to their injuries, succumbed to their injuries,” FWC Capt. David Dipre said.
Daniel was set to begin class at Stanley Switlik Elementary School on Wednesday.
For a child to lose his life, Dipre said, “It should just never happen.”