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Charges Reduced As Teen Pays Fine In Fatal Boating Accident In Greenwich

GREENWICH, Conn. — A 17-year-old Greenwich girl facing several infractions in connection with the boating death of a friend in 2014 pleaded guilty to a lesser charge and was fined $35 in the case, the Hartford Courant reported. 

Emily Fedorko of Old Greenwich died in a tubing accident on the waters of Long Island Sound in 2014.

Emily Fedorko of Old Greenwich died in a tubing accident on the waters of Long Island Sound in 2014.

Photo Credit: Courtesy of Facebook

Elizabeth Lewis, now 17, who was operating a 21-foot powerboat on Long Island Sound, had been issued several infractions last August for violating boating regulations, violating water skiing requirements and violating rules preventing a collision. 

Emily Fedorko, 16, was killed and a 15-year-old girl was severely injured in the water-tubing accident on Aug. 6, 2014. 

She pleaded guilty in Stamford Superior Court to an infraction for not carrying the appropriate floatable throw-cushion for the size of the boat, and saw the infractions for negligent operation of a boat dropped, the Courant reported.  

In the accident, Fedorko and the second teen fell off a water tube into the water about a mile off the coast of Greenwich Point. 

Lewis made a quick turn to pick up the water tubers but hit them while they were still in the water, police said. The girls became entangled in the propeller, police said.

Lewis and a passenger immediately lifted the two injured girls into the boat and transported them to the Old Greenwich Yacht Club dock at Greenwich Point Park.

At the time of the accident, police said the 16-year-old who was driving the boat was properly licensed to operate it. The boat was a 21-foot Wahoo center console recreational powerboat with a 200 horsepower outboard engine.

There were no adults on the boat, and the four girls on the boat were all 15 and 16 years old at the time. In the state of Connecticut, the minimum age to operate a boat is 16, as long as the boater has passed a safe boating course.

The second girl in the water suffered serious cuts to her leg and was treated at Stamford Hospital, where she received a large number of stitches.

Emily, a resident of Old Greenwich, sustained a fatal injury to her torso and died at the scene.

In September 2015, Gov. Dannel Malloy officially signed "Emily's Law," a new state law that prohibits children under 16 years of age from piloting watercraft towing skiers or tubers and requires they take a related safety course.

Click here to read the story at the Hartford Courant website.

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