Left inset: Collin Moorefield (obituary). Right: an aerial view of the area where the boat crashed (WFLA).
The mother of a 15-year-old boy who was ejected from a boat and killed in March in Florida has filed a lawsuit against the 15-year-old behind the wheel, alleging the minor operator was “under the influence of alcohol” prior to the crash and that his parents were negligent in allowing the two boys to go out on Tampa Bay without adult supervision.
The civil lawsuit filed in Pinellas County court by Breck Moorefield on behalf of her son Collin Moorefield’s estate claims that Anjan Tharakan and Katherine Tharakan owned the “115-horsepower” Key West 188 BR and allowed their son, identified in the lawsuit as C.T., to operate the boat even though they “knew or should have known” that the teen was “ill-equipped, in-experienced, or both, to safely operate the Key West, especially without an adult experienced in operating power watercraft present” on March 3, 2024, when the teens went on the water after a “get-together” at the Tharakan residence.
“Anjan and Katherine knew of C.T.’s plan and allowed C.T. to take Collin Moorefield out on the Key West without appropriate supervision and without ensuring that C.T. did not take alcohol with them on the Key West, from the family get-together or elsewhere,” the suit said, demanding a jury trial, compensation for medical and funeral bills, and seeking damages in excess of $50,000 under Florida’s Wrongful Death Act.
WFLA reported in March that the 15-year-old driver of the boat slammed into a dock in St. Petersburg, sending himself and Collin Moorefield flying off of the 18-foot vessel. While C.T. was pulled from the water and survived, Moorefield was fatally injured and pronounced dead at Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital from blunt force trauma and drowning.
The theory of the lawsuit is straight forward: If not for the allegedly negligent acts by the named defendants, Collin Moorefield would never have been “violently cast overboard” that day.
The suit said that after leaving the Tharakan residence, C.T. had Collin and another boy on the boat, dropped the latter off so he could ride a bike home, and then accelerated the boat “at or near its top-speed of 43.5 miles per hour” while “under the influence of alcohol and while distracted[.]”
The driver was “focusing on his cell phone for a prolonged period, attempting to change the music he was playing over the Key West’s speakers rather than focusing on his surroundings,” the complaint alleged. “Distracted and inhibited by alcohol, C.T. drove the Key West south, narrowly missing a dock before forcefully and violently striking the next dock and lower unit of a boat it held[.]”
An obituary for Collin Moorefield said he is survived by his parents and two siblings, that the eighth-grader excelled in sports, and enjoyed “music, fishing, and food,” and traveling across the U.S. and in Europe with family.
“He was known for his ability to make you laugh, his handsome smile, genuine respect for others, thoughtfulness, adventurous spirit, and easygoing personality,” the obit said.
The court docket did not list an attorney of record for the defendants.
Read the lawsuit here.
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