Maritime Injury Lawyer Blog

Two fifty-foot power boats, moored next to each other, burned at the Edmonds Marina early the morning of December 31, with flames reportedly fifty feet high at the time firefighters arrived. A janitor who was working nearby noticed the flames and made the call shortly before 4:00 a.m.

No serious injuries were reported, but a couple who were overnighting onboard their boat near the end of the same dock inhaled smoke and were unable to get safely off the dock until Snohomish County firefighters brought them ashore via rescue boat. Both people were treated for minor smoke inhalation and were released from Swedish Edmonds Hospital a few hours later.

Continue reading "Flames Engulf Two Boats" »

On December 18 around 3:15 a commercial diving boat, GET WET, with two crew and six dive customers on board, had finished its first dive at Molasses Reef off Key Largo and was begun powering away to a second dive location when it quickly began taking in water over the stern. The approximately 30-foot vessel submerged, trapping two of the customers underwater.

Captain John Nathaniel swam in to pull them out, finding both unconscious. Amit Rampurkarl of New York is now reported in stable condition, but Aimee Rhoads of Washington state did not respond to CPR and was pronounced dead.

Good Samaritan vessel VISIBILITY called for help and was able to take in the GET WET divers and crew and start CPR until the Coast Guard and Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission arrived. Why GET WET sank is, as yet, unknown.

Rapid response from Coast Guard Station Chetco River did not save the life of one of three people holding onto their capsized 16-foot pleasure boat near the mouth of the Chetco River in Oregon, shortly after noon on December 22. A witness on shore called for help; the Coast Guard launched a 25-foot boat and crew and recovered the three boaters within minutes of the call.

The two survivors suffered minor scrapes and hypothermia, but the third person was unresponsive at the time of rescue and pronounced deceased after local EMS crews transported him from to Sutter Coast Hospital in Crescent City, California. The Coast Guard expressed its deepest condolences to the deceased man's loved ones.

None of the three individuals were wearing a life jacket.

The Austin Fire Department contained a two-alarm fire on a boat dock and a boat in the Hyatt marina on Sunday afternoon, at least one of which belongs to Capital Cruises.

AFD Battalion Chief Thayer Smith told KXAN a river cruise boat caught fire around 2 p.m. while docked near the First Avenue Bridge at 280 Barton Springs Road. The flames burned through the boats ropes and moorings, resulting in the boat drifting a quarter mile while still ablaze before docking under the Congress Avenue bridge.

Continue reading "Cruise boat burns" »

The skipper of a boat that ran aground at the Anchorage small boat harbor has been arrested for boating under the influence. The man was piloting the 53-foot vessel when it struck a pile in the harbor, and continued into the loading ramp. The Coast Guard responded, sending pollution responders and investigators to the scene.

The vessel was carrying up to 200 gallons of diesel fuel. So far, no spill has been reported, the vessel suffered minor damage.  When the Coast Guard officers suspected that the pilot was intoxicated, they called police officers to the scene. Police conducted standard sobriety tests, which the man failed. Officers then conducted an alcohol breathalyzer test, and found that he registered more than one and-a-half times the legal alcohol limit. The captain has been arrested.

In 2010, alcohol was blamed as a factor in 19% of all boating accident fatalities.

An 11-year-old girl is in critical condition after being struck by a propeller. Florida Fish and Wildlife officials say the girl was tubing when she was struck by the propeller while climbing onto a boat on Lake Taray. The contact happened behind her home in the Avila community. She was transported to St. Joseph's Hospital. Her name has not been released. The FWC is investigating.

The US Coast Guard is to begin investigations into a fatal boat accident in the Florida Keys, which killed one person. The boat capsized after it was swamped by a large wave, and the persons on board, including a two-year-old child, survived for hours hanging onto a cooler and to the capsized boat. An eighty-year-old woman, who was holding onto her son, was swept away and died.

The seven remaining boaters were rescued, and taken to the hospital for evaluation. None of their injuries were reported to be life-threatening. All suffered exhaustion and jellyfish bites.

Continue reading "Investigation into Fatal Boating Death" »

The National Transportation Safety Board blamed the U.S. Coast Guard for lax oversight leading up to the 2009 San Diego patrol boat crash that killed 8-year-old Anthony DeWeese. The Federal board concluded that the Coast Guard boat pilot was going too fast -- as fast as 42 knots -- for the crowded conditions on San Diego Bay at night The NTSB discussed its findings at a meeting Tuesday morning in Washington, D.C. A summary written report was released later in the day, and the full report will be published in coming weeks, officials said.

Four people have been confirmed dead and several others were reported injured in a crash in New York over the weekend. The incident occurred early on Sunday morning d on the Hudson River near the town of Red Hook when a 19 ft motorboat crashed into a concrete wall and capsized.

Of six people on the boat, one was thrown from the boat and died. The other three victims went down with the boat. The last two passengers on the boat managed to swim to shore. The bodies of the deceased have all been recovered.

Dutchess County Sheriff's officers found bottles of alcohol on the boat. Authorities also believe that the operator of the boat may have been driving at excessive speed. It is not yet clear who was operating the boat.

The Coast Guard in a report released last month confirmed that alcohol is the number one factor contributing to boating accidents in 2010. It was linked to at least 50% of all crashes and 19% of all fatal boating accidents in 2010.

SEATTLE - Coast Guard units in partnership with local and state marine law enforcement agencies will patrol waters throughout the Pacific Northwest June 24-26, 2011, for Operation Dry Water, an annual campaign focused on the education, detection and enforcement of boating under the influence (BUI).

Operation Dry Water is a national initiative coordinated by the National Association of State Boating Law Administrators (NASBLA) in partnership with state and local agencies and the U.S. Coast Guard, aimed at reducing alcohol and drug-related accidents and fatalities on the water.

Continue reading "Intoxicated Boating Enforcement" »

A Coast Guard helicopter and crew from Coast Guard Air Station Houston were on patrol when they spotted an overturned 18-foot boat in Galveston Bay on Sunday, June 19. The helicopter conducted a search of the area and spotted one person in the water. The crew hoisted Robert Rasmussen of Houston into the helicopter, who notified the Coast Guard that his father was still in the water.

The helicopter crew located a good Samaritan who had arrived on the scene and picked up the father, 59-year-old Richard Rasmussen of San Leon. Both father and son were transported to Air Station Houston for evaluation. Officials said both recovered men had their life jackets on when they were rescued and, having been in the water for over two hours, their life jackets undoubtedly saved their lives.

Watchstanders at Coast Guard Sector Jacksonville received word of a sinking 26-foot boat about one mile southeast of Cape Canaveral, Thursday morning around 9:45 a.m. The captain noticed the boat listing and sinking; once in the water he was able to make a mayday call using a cell phone in a waterproof case. The Coast Guard deployed a 25-foot rescue boat crew and arrived on the scene shortly after.

When the Coast Guard arrived the boat was completely submerged and the passengers were in the water. The Coast Guard crew rescued five adults and two children from the water. Rescued were 23-year-old Katie Hart of Florida, 64-year-old Richard Leister of Kentucky, 35-year-old Richard Leister Jr. of Kentucky, 54-year-old Gary Lees of Tennessee, 11-year-old Nick Lees of Tennessee, and 9-year-old Nolan Lees of Tennessee.

All seven boaters were wearing life jackets at the time of the Coast Guard's arrival. None of the passengers required medical attention.

The boat operator involved in a Presidents Day accident that ended with the deaths of two Middleburg High School students, including his son, has been cited with reckless operation.

Ted Hanner, 49, was operating the 1985 Baja bass boat on Black Creek near the Knight's Boat Ramp and Marina facility when he left the controls to pump the fuel bulb, a piece of equipment that helps get fuel to the motor, said Karen Parker, a spokeswoman from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. She said the boat was running kind of ragged and Hanner was trying to get more fuel to the motor. The boat veered to the north bank and crashed into a tree 3 feet off the water, according to commission at the time.

Hanner's son, Travis Hanner, 17, and the teen's girlfriend Halee Mickey, 15, were sitting in the bow of the 18-foot, 4-inch boat at the time. The teens died at the scene from severe blunt force trauma, the commission reported at the time. Ted Hanner was treated at Shands Jacksonville hospital and later released. Alcohol was not a factor, and the boat was traveling about 20 mph, Parker said. Reckless operation of a boat is a first-degree misdemeanor.

Hip-hop singer Sean Kingston reportedly is in critical condition in a Florida hospital after crashing a personal watercraft into Palm Island Bridge in Miami Beach, with a female passenger on board.

Both were rescued by a nearby boater after the incident, which occurred Sunday at about 6 p.m. local time.

Continue reading "Serious injury in boating crash" »

A tow-vessel operator, whose vessel was involved in a collision that left a 13-year-old boy dead, has been charged with involuntary manslaughter. The boy's father has also been charged with involuntary manslaughter in the collision between a commercial towing vessel and a bass fishing boat.

The boy was a passenger in his father's 19-foot bass fishing boat when it collided with a commercial towboat in the shipping channel on the James River. The boy sustained serious injuries, and was taken to hospital where he died.

According to local law enforcement, the boats were traveling at high speeds at the time.  Both, the boy's father and the operator of the towboat have been charged with involuntary manslaughter.