An Indian student died after his watercraft collided with another in the US state of Florida, according to media reports. Venkataramana Pittala, 27, was a graduate student at Indiana University Purdue University in Indianapolis set to graduate in May.
Pittala, who hailed from Telangana, was driving a rented Yamaha personal watercraft (PWC) that collided with another PWC operated by a 14-year-old boy from the South Florida mainland on Saturday, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC).
“We are, friends of Venkataramana Pittala, reaching out with a heavy heart that our friend, a Masters student at Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis(IUPUI), who lost his life in a jet ski accident in Florida on March 9, 2024. He is about to graduate in May 2024,” according to a GoFundMe page set up to raise funds to send his mortal remains back to his family.
Personal watercraft are tandem boats often referred to as Jet Skis, the name of a popular model manufactured by Kawasaki. It is unclear if anyone else was injured, the Miami Herald newspaper reported. The teen was listed as “uninjured” in the FWC report. It lists arrests as “pending”, the Keys Weekly reported.
On Monday, the FWC released an incident report with the names of the two people involved but no details on what transpired. “This is a two vessel (PWC) accident resulting in one fatality,” the report states. “The vessels collided with each other.” According to FWC, 14 is the minimum age to operate a personal watercraft in Florida. The report doesn’t state whether authorities have determined fault. Both personal watercraft were rented, it said.
(With agency inputs)
