For the first time in almost a year since a tragic holiday boat crash killed their daughter and critically injured another teen, the parents of Luciana Fernandez are speaking out. They’re criticizing the investigation and misdemeanor charges after the Biscayne Bay crash over the 2022 Labor Day weekend.

The final report on the crash from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, the state agency that investigates most boat accidents, was released Friday — it concluded boat operator and owner George Pino wasn’t under the influence of alcohol when he crashed his vessel into a fixed channel marker at a high rate of speed.

However, the Fish and Wildlife investigator, who wasn’t identified, wrote in his report that he and his colleagues found 61 empty alcoholic beverage containers, an empty bottle of champagne and a half-consumed bottle of liquor on the boat after it crashed.

And the section of the report detailing the booze on the boat said “alcohol was not considered to be a contributing factor to this accident. Pino showed no signs of impairment when officers responded nor when I arrived on scene.”

Based on the findings, the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office charged Pino with three counts of misdemeanor careless boating charges.

“It is insulting to our family, who has had no choice but to accept the consequences of the accident, to now also be forced to accept the numerous inconsistencies refuted by the FWC report,” Andres and Melissa Fernandez, Luciana’s parents, said in a statement released to the Miami Herald this week.

The ruling out of alcohol as a factor, the couple say, is “disturbing.”

“The only real way to conclusively rule out alcohol as a factor would have been to test for such on that day. The fact that self-preservation seems to be more important than helping provide answers and closure to our family is overwhelmingly offensive; we’ve had to bury our 17-year-old daughter and another teenager lost life as she knew it.”

The other teenager is Katerina Puig, an 18-year-old who was permanently disabled after the crash. Her parents are suing the Pinos, including George Pino’s wife, Cecilia Pino, claiming, among other things, that they provided alcohol to the 12 underage girls taking part in their daughter’s 18th birthday celebration on Elliott Key.

The state investigator wrote in his report that he asked George Pino to voluntarily submit blood to test for alcohol consumption, but he “declined due to not having an attorney present.”

Pino told investigators that when he was driving his 29-foot, twin 300-horsepower engine Robalo boat south through Cutter Bank on the Intracoastal Waterway back to his house at the gated Ocean Reef Club community in Key Largo, a larger boat was heading north in the same channel.

He said he had to maneuver his vessel to avoid the wake. That’s when he lost control of his boat, and hit the Channel 15 marker, Pino told investigators.

Investigators, however, have never been able to corroborate that claim, including from any of the surviving 12 people who were ejected from his boat when it hit the navigational marker.

“Witnesses say they never noticed another vessel prior to the accident, and do not remember any sharp maneuvers or turns prior to the accident,” the investigator wrote.

The investigator also said that a photograph provided by another boater who came to the rescue “shows the north end of the channel toward Cutter Bank, and there are no vessels in view heading north in the photograph,” an image taken moments after the crash.

“Claims that the accident was caused by a phantom boat and its wake are both clearly debunked in the report. In addition, the report confirms that there were no mechanical issues in the steering wheel to the engines,” the Fernandezes said in the statement. “The GPS download in the report shows a straight line and an increase in speed; there was no veering or dodging of anything.”

In the Sept. 4, 2022, crash, all 14 people on the boat were thrown into the water. The boat’s starboard side was smashed and the vessel rolled over, trapping Luciana underneath, according to the report. George Pino swam under the capsized boat and grabbed Luciana “and attempted to keep her afloat,” the investigator wrote.

Civilian boaters were the first to arrive and render assistance at around 6:30 p.m. Police and fire-rescue crews came shortly after. Luciana was unconscious and not breathing and Miami-Dade Fire Rescue flew her to Kendall Regional Medical Center, where she died, according to the report.

The cause of death was drowning, according to the Monroe County Medical Examiner.

Katerina Puig was also found by her friends unconscious in the water. Paramedics flew her to Nicklaus Children’s Hospital near South Miami. The FWC investigator said in his report that she had brain bleeding and “multiple fractured bones in her head.”

Her family hasn’t gone into detail about her permanent injuries, but said in their lawsuit against the Pinos that she will require a lifetime of medical care.

The FWC investigator stated in last week’s report: “At the time of this report, she remains unresponsive.”

Another girl was also injured and hospitalized, but has since recovered, according to the report and the Puig family attorneys.

All the teens on the boat that day attended either Our Lady of Lourdes Academy in Southwest Miami-Dade, Carrollton School of the Sacred Heart in Coconut Grove or Westminster Christian School in Palmetto Bay.

Puig was a standout soccer player at Lourdes.

The Puigs’ attorneys last week said the conclusion of the investigation suggests preferential treatment was given to George Pino, a well-known South Florida real estate broker, especially since alcohol was dismissed as a factor so quickly.

“They were stuck if you don’t do testing at the scene, and I don’t think there’s any doubt any similarly situated citizen who was facing the same situation would have been tested involuntarily,” Fort Lauderdale attorney Brett Reitman, representing the Puigs with Scott Liberman and Ivan Cabrera, told the Miami Herald.

“It certainly seems like preferential treatment, and now they have to walk backwards to justify their actions, and that’s what it appears to us that they are doing,” Reitman said.

The Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the Fernandezes’ statement, said Friday that the charges it ultimately filed against the Pinos were based on the FWC’s investigation.

“The extensive marine investigation undertaken by Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission law enforcement officers meticulously reviewed every aspect of the incident. The driving pattern of the vessel, as clearly indicated by the boat’s onboard GPS system, and the fact that the boat operator was not impaired by drugs or alcohol while operating the vessel limited the criminal charges applicable to the circumstances of this incident,” Ed Griffith, spokesman for the agency, said in a written statement.

The FWC declined to comment on the Fernandezes’ statement, and George Pino’s attorney, Andrew Mescolotto, did not immediately respond.

The charges filed against Pino: one count of careless operation of a vessel causing death and two counts of careless operation of a vessel resulting in serious bodily injury — both punishable by a maximum jail time of 60 days and a $500 fine.

“Minimizing the accident, the irresponsible actions causing it, and the gravity of our reality, to the likes of a mere traffic citation, only adds insult to injury,” Andres and Melissa Fernandez said.