“I’ve never been on a houseboat before…”

I’m Emilio’s Mom,
My son Emilio came home from UCSD having just finished the third quarter exams, of his third year in Engineering. He had been so busy and I had seen less of him this quarter than any other one. I remember a special sharpness and clarity in the love and pride I felt for him. I wished he could have spent more time with me but I also knew how much he wanted to go off with his fraternity brothers and the sister sorority to Lake Havasu—an adventure on a houseboat that he had never experienced before…

TRAGEDY: UCSD student dies at Lake Havasu over spring break
(Story by Sheryl Welcott)

A spring break trip to Lake Havasu, Arizona turned tragic for a large group of UCSD students when Emilio Irving Cruz, a Revelle College junior, was killed in a horrifying boating accident witnessed by several friends and fraternity brothers.

Cruz died late in the afternoon of Sunday, March 21, after being struck by the propeller of a houseboat rented by the students. The accident happened on the first day of what was to become a four-day trip for about 70 UCSD students, most of whom are members of Cruz’s fraternity.

According to Mohave County Sheriffs Office spokesperson, Tonya Dowe, the boat Cruz was on was trying to hook up with a second boat in the middle of the lake when Cruz’s boat began drifting toward another group of houseboats.

To avoid collision, the driver, one of the students, started the boat and began to back up. At the same time, apparently unaware that the motor was on, Cruz and a friend dove off the roof of the houseboat. Cruz was pulled beneath the boat and hit the propeller just before 4 p.m…

…Cruz was bleeding heavily as friends worked to keep him alive while they waited for an emergency helicopter. The students’ hopes were momentarily lifted when the helicopter radioed that Cruz had stabilized en route to a Las Vegas hospital, but he was pronounced dead upon arrival at the medical facility.

That same evening, a knock came at Marion’s door. She opened the door to a mother’s worst nightmare. She felt as if she were watching a movie, and she separated herself from the actors in the scene: A uniformed policeman and a woman in a kitchen.

Emilio’s mother remembers hearing the dialogue of the scene she watched unfold:

Yes, I have a son in Havasu.

What kind of accident?

No, no one is here. What kind of accident?

A boating accident…

No, I’m alone. Where is my son? Why doesn’t he call? (She recalls the officer being uncomfortable and evasive. Now the lady in the scene is drawn toward her son’s graduation picture and she holds it in her hands.)

Tell me what happened? (The lady is past impatient and near hysteria)

No, I don’t want to call a neighbor! I want my son (The lady makes a call to the Mohave Sheriff’s office, and still the officer there with her does not tell her that her son is dead)

At this point Marion, Emilio’s mom, starts to realize that it is not a movie, and that this officer would not be there on a Sunday evening asking her to find someone else at home to cling to unless something had gone terribly wrong. The Mohave Sheriff’s Department answered her call and it was then that she learned that her son, her only son, and only child, had been eviscerated and his leg virtually amputated by the propeller of a houseboat, and he was pronounced D.O.A. at the hospital in Havasu.

“The first response is total shock. It is unbelievable that this could have happened,” said Hugh Pates, a UCSD psychologist who met with students as they returned from Lake Havasu Sunday night and Monday. “I think [their recovery] will take some time.”

Revelle Provost F. Thomas Bond called Cruz’s death “a terrible tragedy.”

Bond hailed Cruz as an excellent student who maintained an A- average as an AMES major, was awarded several prestigious scholarships and was an accomplished athlete as well.

“I knew him quite well and had been involved in recruiting him. He was the kind of student you could tell was going to be successful. I was always teasing him about trying to do too much.” Bond said. “It really hit me hard when I heard.”

Three years have passed since her son’s accident, but Marion still works to understand why this totally preventable accident occurred. And each day she turns to her computer to write on the safety of the subject, she sees her own son’s greeting he left on the screen to surprise her after returning to college one break: “Hi Mom, Have fun, I miss you. Love, Me.” Marion wakes each day to the emptiness that the loss of her son has created and sets out to achieve her goal: That no other mother should have to endure what she went through.

Marion is currently very active in a drive to make it mandatory for all rental houseboats to be equipped with propeller guards. Supporting the creation of this web site as a vehicle to educate and reach out to survivors or the families of victims, Mrs. Cruz asks that you contribute your story.

Your story of a propeller strike can help inform.

As a victim of a propeller strike, we know retelling your story is reliving it. This is hard. You want to put it behind you, focus on the healing, on the future and to make the best of what you have left. We respect that. However, you can help SPIN by telling your story. You may just reach out with the story that prevents the next accident and saves a future propeller victim. Your story will reach the U.S.Coast Guard and be available to policy makers and legislators.

You may contact us in many ways:

S.P.I.N. - Stop Propeller Injuries Now
2365 Conejo Court
Los Osos, CA, 93402
tel. 805-528-0554 - fax. 805-526-8756
email: spinsafety@gmail.com