Boating Accidents
Is there a legal definition for a boating accident under maritime law? According to the Coast Guard, a recreational boating accident means a recreational vessel, numbered vessel, or documented vessel is being used by its operator for recreational purposes and one or more of the following events listed below occur involving the vessel and its equipment which are common for the definition
of typical causes and situations which contribute to a
boating accident as interpreted under the maritime law.The maritime law interpretations of boating accident causes are the following:
- Grounding
- Capsizing
- Flooding/Swamping
- Falls within or overboard a vessel
- Person(s) ejected from a vessel
- Person leaves a vessel that is underway to swim for pleasure
- Person leaves a vessel to retrieve a lost item, another person, or vessel
- Sinking
- Fire or Explosion
- Skier Mishap
- Collision with another vessel or object
- Striking a submerged object
- The vessel, propeller, propulsion unit or steering machinery strikes a person
- Carbon monoxide asphyxiation
- Electrocution
As a general guideline, if any of these events occur and there is a reasonable likelihood that as a result of the event(s) - an injury, death, or property damage occurs, the incident is a recreational boating accident.
Regardless of how you define a boating accident, one thing is certain…it would be nice if there were less of them. To understand how they might be prevented, one might look at the causes of boating accidents. In its accident statistics, the Coast Guard lists the top ten contributing factors to pleasure boat accidents. Ranking from highest to lowest, in 2009 these were:
Going back to the Coast Guard study, they identified the top five types of boating accidents. In 2009, starting at the highest rate of occurrence, these were:
- Careless or Reckless Operation
- Operator Inattention
- Operator Inexperience
- Excessive Speed
- Hazardous Waters
- Alcohol Use
- Passenger-Skier Behavior
- Machinery System Failure
- No Proper Lookout
- Rules of the Road Infraction
Since boating accidents impact peoples’ lives in such terrible ways, it’s worth doing all that we can to avoid them. While some accidents might not appear preventable, there’s something we can all do to make boating safer. We can use our lifejackets. This may seem like tiresome advice you hear from every boating safety expert out there. But, when you look at the Coast Guard reports, the statistics show that fatalities were always lower where the boater wore a life jacket.
- Collision with Vessel,
- Collision with a Fixed Object,
- Falling Overboard,
- Capsizing and
- Skier Mishap.
At the Law Offices of Vincent J. Ciecka, P.C. we highly specialize and been very successful in obtaining high recoveries in boating accidents injury related cases. If you have a situation where you or someone you know might be a victim of this type of injury due to the negligence of someone else, please contact us as soon as possible to discuss your specifics and help you determine if indeed you have a case so you can obtain due compensation for such injuries.
