Boating accidents persist as summer winds down

Posted by Bruce Westbrook

August 4, 2008

Just because summer is winding down doesn’t mean boaters are coming ashore. Our waterways remain a magnet for fishing, skiing and other boat-driven recreation, and that means these often crowded waterways also remain a danger zone for boating accidents.

Some innocent boaters in New Jersey learned how dangerous it could be early Sunday morning when another boat slammed into theirs, killing one person and injuring four others on the boat, one of them critically.

Their boat — a single-engine, 17-foot recreational boat — was following all safety measures, investigators said. The boat that struck them then sped off, and authorities are searching for it.

A safe assumption in this boat accident is that the driver of the hit-and-run boat also may have been hitting the bottle. Certainly the time of this tragedy — 1:15 a.m. — was conducive to boating accidents, which often occur because someone has amassed too much alcohol in their system after hours of drinking.

Whatever the case, hit and run is a crime, whether it’s on land or on water. And personal injury and wrongful death laws can apply just the same in a boating accident.

How severe is the problem? The U.S. Coast Guard reports that 5,191 boating accidents occurred in America in 2007. These caused 685 fatalities, 3,673 injuries, and $53 million in property damage.

If you have suffered injury or a loved one has suffered injury or death in a boating accident due to another person’s negligence or recklessness, a boating accident lawyer with Jim S. Adler & Associates can help.

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