Jo-Ann Zaccaria never wanted her 17-year-old son Paul to buy a Jet Ski.
But the college-bound Mill Basin teen still found a used one through a local dealer last summer - only to be killed days later in a high-profile water-scooter accident near his home on June 30.
"I'm in pain every day. I just don't want another parent to go through this," said Zaccaria, a single mother and public school teacher. "He was my only child. I don't want my son to die in vain. I want something to come of this."
A year after Paul's death, she is determined to protect other kids.
Together with local officials, Zaccaria is pushing for stepped-up enforcement and stricter laws regulating the high-speed water scooters popular in waterfront neighborhoods around Jamaica Bay, Pelham Bay and other areas.
"This is what gives me the strength to go on," said Zaccaria recently, standing on her deck overlooking an empty dock where Paul's Jet Ski was briefly parked last summer. "There are kids 13 \[years old\] driving Jet Skis," she said. "There's no one there to enforce the laws."
Under state regulations, all water scooter drivers must take an approved eight-hour boating safety course, wear a life vest and, in most cases, be at least 14. But Zaccaria and local City Councilman Lew Fidler insist the laws are not always obeyed - and must go further.
"Paul's death was very much the motivation for this," said Fidler, who wants steeper penalties for water-scooter violations.
Zaccaria's son, who had a black belt in karate, was not wearing a life jacket when he was rammed by a water scooter driven by Aristotle Plagianakos, then 16, also of Mill Basin. "He died instantly," said Zaccaria, adding that witnesses told her Plagianakos may have been going up to 70 mph when he slammed into Paul. "A life jacket wouldn't have saved him." In March, Plagianakos was charged with second-degree manslaughter - a first in the city for a boating incident, according to the Brooklyn district attorney's office. He also was charged with criminally negligent homicide and reckless endangerment.
Plagianakos' attorney didn't return calls for comment.
Boaters searched for Paul's body for weeks before it was finally found 37 days later - not far from his own dock. "I always knew he would come home," said a tearful Zaccaria, who held a memorial for Paul on Saturday, the anniversary of his death.
At a Council hearing organized by Fidler in May, the NYPD said that of the six boating collisions reported last year, four involved water scooters.
Cops also said they stopped 146 water scooters last year and issued 87 summonses, nine for reckless operation, 25 for no safety certificate and 53 for no life vests and other equipment.
State Parks officials, who oversee marine law enforcement in the city, said the various city, state and federal officers who patrol city waterways do their best to keep them safe.
"But there is also personal responsibility," said spokeswoman Cathy Jimenez. "They need to be aware, they need to wear a life jacket and they need to not drink while boating."
ehays@nydailynews.com
6 years ago
