Boating Accident

I wish you the best of luck & hope that everything works out for your family & friends - I'm not sure if we can offer any more help than what you have recieved. I apologize for our "direct responses", though put yourself in our shoes the "readers" of a inconsistant thread. As advised by many members here. Find an attorney that has experience in this field & stop publishing in a public forum.
 
Walshie, I am not so sure it is that clearcut. The boat was burdened, but the boy turned to port while being overtaken. He had a responsibility to maintain course and speed.

Comment on insurance companies and lawyers: Insurance companies retain lawyers to represent themselves. Sometimes their interests overlap with the policy holder's interests. Sometimes not.

BeachChick -- what is still far from clear is why you think you owe someone money. Are you being sued? Billed for damages? Check your policy yourself to see if you were allowed to have other operators on the PWC. If so, your liability coverage should hold. The VESSEL is insured, not the operator. The policy may exclude other operators, but I doubt it does.

Regardless, get yourself a better lawyer. Now.
 
Beachchick, you need your own personal attorney, in addition to the one provided by your insurance co. The insurance co attorney works for the insurance co and while they say they are representing you, they are paid by the co to see that the co pays as little money as possible on your behalf. I know that sounds pretty skeptical but that's the way it is. As a physician, I would never go into a court of law (if I were being sued) without my own personal attorney.
I don't think it's as simple as who had the right of way either. Both vessels are charged with doing everything they can to avoid a collision regardless of who "had the right of way". Both vessels could be at fault here.
Doesn't everybody involved have the moral and legal responsability to lend assistance in an accident of this type? If so, more charges could be filed against the boat driver.
Greg
 
eek, why go there?
Blonde or blond or does it matter????
 
I am reminded of the scene in Trading Places where Eddie, cuffed in the private club yells "is there a lawyer in the house?" and 2/3 of the members duck. <gg>
 
You guys are way way to nice. Try reading this c%#** after two Martins. ---AND one of the reasons, and sometimes the primary reason, one buys liability coverage is defense. I have a hard time with the parts representing that there has been contact with anyone representing BC420's liability carrier . Homeowners, marine or --.
Oh yes, your attorney also represents another party to the accident, did I read that as well (I'm not going back to reread). Good luck.
 
sheeze....blonde jokes now

BeachChick...I’m sure it wasis hard for you to re-live that day. I’ve boated for over 25 years and lost several friends to accidents that remind me in many ways to yours. There is some very good information in the above posts and I hope you find it useful. I slip by one of our State Troopers. He is a 20 year friend and he has had to report on accidents that I lost friends in. You are asking “why” and looking for clear cut fault, which I have learned sometimes doesn’t exist in boating, or not in a way that can be decided out side of the court house. I’ve seen families destroyed by accidents like this. You have the official accident report; find an attorney knowledgeable in marine law to translate the information, protect yourself and your friendship with the boys’ mom if possible. Someone in here may know one and hopefully will respond to you. You have a right to question the repair bill, and whether you owe it. Be glad you didn’t have a funeral to attend, it could have been much worse.

Best of wishes and let us know how things work out…..by hanging in here and searching for answers, you proved to be a tough lady……I respect that.

Know the rules and boat safely
 
http://www.navcen.uscg.gov/mwv/navrules/rules/Rule13.htm If the jet ski was being over taken, then yo might refer to the above Rule 13. Maybe this will help.
 
Pascal said:

>>i think Les needs to add a big warning onthe registration form :

"Warning - clickish private group, enter at your own risk and make sure your first posts are detailed, spailshaked and accurate."

guys, we are not a court of law but an internet forum !

why would anyone make up such a story ? why ?<<

I agree. The insulting posts are an embarrassment to this forum. A little politeness would go a long way. You know that old saying, "If you don't have anything nice to say, then don't say anything at all"? IMO, that applies on public internet forums that purport to provide useful information. The way people get jumped coming in here, it's a wonder that anyone is brave enough to post at all.

This forum likes to think it's the premiere internet boating forum. It *does* have tons of useful information and truly helpful members. But the negativism and rudeness in so many posts is getting really old.

Beach, all the advice you've gotten concerning retaining a lawyer experienced in maritime law is absolutely correct. I hope you're able to do that soon. Best of luck to you in this horrible situation.

Nancy
 
I'd also like to remind some of the more "direct" posters of something I was taught long ago on bulletin board systems. Try to refrain from posting anything that you wouldn't say directly to someone face to face. I have a feeling that had anybody met this lady at a bar or yacht club and heard her story, I don't think they would have questioned her story to her face. It would have probably went much like this thread did. She started with her story, it seemed incomplete so questions would be asked and answered and hopefully in the end, she would have gained some good advice from seasoned boaters with a lot of experience.

It seems that lately, many RO's seem to think that they are superior to new boaters who are asking questions that may seem to stupid to someone with lots of experience. We have to remember that we were all there at one time or another. Some of us were blessed with more common sense and others of us were just damned lucky to have survived and learned the hard way.

I think that we need to return to the way this site was at the beginning when new people were welcome din and helped instead of questioned or made fun of! Just my two cents, worth what you paid for it.
 
Dave,
What you describe seems to be the norm for this group and others. A while back I told this group about a fellow boater who had a 2000 Silverton fall apart and sink in not very heavy seas. I linked the group to the starting post i had made on another forum after I had been told about this scary story by my brother who had sat a a dinner with the captains wife. She had told the story and i relayed what i was told. I was accused of spreading wive's tales and urban legens, making up facts and one member of this group accused me of being some kind of a spy, or agent for the captain who had the loss. Even on the other forum I got little respect for the story until I convinced the captain who had lost the boat to go online. Then on that forum things changed as the members heard the story from the man and understood what he had gone through. Then those members were civil and supportive, but on this group even after they read what the captain said as he explained the sinking and breakup, these members (some/a few) of Boatered were sure they knew much more about boating and the captain was at fault and i was a spy. Beachchick got beat up the same way and I say even if she did not tell every detail at her first turn at the keyboard, what was done to her, what is done to others is wrong. No reason for it as I see things tell me where i am wrong.
John d
 
First off...accident reports are just accident reports...they don't state who is liable.

Which police department and District Attorney is handling this?

Where did this accident occur...Colorado river?
 
That's why we need the pictures that were sealed by the police dept. It's extremely complicated.

ANYONE.....ANYWHERE....that is involved in an accident of ANY kind where a Police Report is taken has access to that report. There is no such thing as a Police Dept. "Sealing" anything. All you have to do is go to the Police Station of Jurisdiction and go to the Records Dept. Pay a small fee ( about 3 bucks here ) and they'll give you a complete copy of the accident report.
This really IS starting to sound like alot of crap. You have an attorney and he/she hasn't informed you of anything? ( or so it would SEEM )
Since you haven't really answered the questions in my last post I really won't expect an answe to this one either but there is one other thing I'm curious about now.
As you were standing on the beach watching this gruesome site unfold before your eyes..........Looking out onto the water....were these vessels traveling left to right or right to left?
 
For those of you who think ROs were snotty with their answers, please go back and re-read the thread. Getting the full story was like pulling teeth and there are/were major inconsistencies. Like being sued but not being sued and the poor kid being DOA but barely breathing. All this from a first time poster. Sorry but it barely passes the sniff test.

I hope for the sake of the boy in this accident that the story is a hoax. But, just in case it isn't, most ROs gave sound advice even though the story is in doubt. For instance, how many times do you read "get a lawyer" before the response "the mom of the kid and I are sharing a lawyer"?

An accident of these proportions would have made the media. We also have a few Coasties and other Marine Police on the board that were asking for the date and location...so far, the location was not given. If it is, I'm sure the story can be verified.

Personally, I'm about 50/50 as to whether this story is real or not.
 
Beach, despite about 100 posts suggesting you get a lawyer, you still don't have one. A "shared" lawyer with the family of the injured party is like sharing your lunch with a shark assuming it won't eat you when it gets hungry again. Probably, one day in the near future, you will get a phone call from that lawyer saying that he can no longer represent you because of a conflict of interest. Five minutes later, someone will show up at your door serving papers.

There are three potentially liable primary parties here; you, the kid and kid's parents and the other boater. The potential also exists for the PWC and boat manufacturers to get called in as well. Each of you has different interests, regardless of how close you may be to the kid's parents.

The very first thing you need to do is to find out why your insurance company is denying coverage. If, in fact, they are going to walk away, you are in danger of losing everything you own and may own in the future.

The second thing you need to do is find an attorney of your own. as stated several dozen times here.

I am missing some info here, like when this happened. It takes no more than a couple of weeks to process a blood test. The BOC of the other driver should be public info at this time.
 
50/50 is pretty generous. She has been asked multiple times for the location of the accident, which would make it very easy to confirm whether the story is real. No response to that question, though.

BeachChick, if you're real, help us believe this.
 
"I am missing some info here, like when this happened. It takes no more than a couple of weeks to process a blood test. The BOC of the other driver should be public info at this time. "

Les - it happened on Labor day - top of page 3 I think, maybe.
 
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