by A federal wrongful death lawsuit has been filed by the family of a 12-year-old girl who was killed in Mission Bay after being hit by a jet ski.
The lawsuit accuses the Army Corps of Engineers and the U.S. Coast Guard of failing to provide safe conditions for paddleboarders, swimmers, and others in 2023 when Savannah Peterson was struck by a fast-moving jet ski while paddleboarding in De Anza Cove.
The case, which was filed Monday in federal court in San Diego, claims that buoys, signage, or other demarcations should have been used to clearly divide areas for swimmers and other people from areas used by jet skis and other watercraft.
The complaint also asserts that the death may have been avoided with more safety patrols and signs pertaining to safety.
According to the complaint, the defendants neglected to maintain Mission Bay in a manner that would have guaranteed the security of its clients and/or alerted them to the hazardous conditions there.
Peterson’s family is still pursuing a wrongful death lawsuit in state court. The San Diego Unified Port District, the city and county of San Diego, and the internet marketplace OfferUp—which rented out the jet ski involved in the deadly incident—are also defendants in that lawsuit.
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The man who was riding the jet ski, Arsanyous Refat Ghaly, was also named as a defendant in the state case. Local authorities had charged him with a crime. Ghaly was given a sentence of 230 days in prison and probation after entering a guilty plea to vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence.
A police officer testified during a preliminary hearing in Ghaly’s criminal case that information taken from the jet ski showed it was moving between 47 and 53 mph at the time of the crash.
The crash happened in an area where watercraft operators are required to maintain speeds below 5 mph, according to the prosecution.
