O'Leary's wife charged in fatal boat accident

If the other driver had no lights, I see no reason Mrs. O'Leary should be charged. 17MPH is NOT an unreasonable speed if in open water.
 
Keep in mind that sometimes the person with the deeper pockets gets charged.
 
deeper pockets gets sued. Should not be a factor in getting charged
 
quote:

Originally posted by Stephen

Keep in mind that sometimes the person with the deeper pockets gets charged.






Not so sure about that. People with deep pockets can afford to hire high powered defense attorneys who eat prosecuting attorneys for lunch. Remember OJ? Should have been a slam dunk for the DA, but they lost.

Now, when it comes to civil lawsuits, which will happen in this case, anyone who is even remotely involved gets named in the suit...especially anyone with deep pockets. I won't be surprised if the boat mfg is named in the lawsuit.
 
I m not a big fan of planning speed at night but unless there was some speed limit where she was running the boat I don’t see how 17MPH is reckless. If anything that is well below the average cruise speed of these ski boats. Smells like a prosecutor trying to get his or her 15 seconds of fame charging a somewhat high profile person (I have no idea who she is though ...)

I doubt a ski boat on a lake had radar...

Law enforcement need to write tickets for boats with missing lights. I see it all the time in Miami which is why I almost never run on plane at night even with radar and FLIR on a full size monitor
 
I did not see a reference to a ski boat. I just assumed Kevin had a "big" boat
 
quote:

Originally posted by getakey

I did not see a reference to a ski boat. I just assumed Kevin had a "big" boat






Did your click on the link? There is a picture of the boat. Looks like a ski boat to me. Or wake boat.
 
quote:

Originally posted by PascalG

I m not a big fan of planning speed at night but unless there was some speed limit where she was running the boat I don’t see how 17MPH is reckless. If anything that is well below the average cruise speed of these ski boats. Smells like a prosecutor trying to get his or her 15 seconds of fame charging a somewhat high profile person (I have no idea who she is though ...)

I doubt a ski boat on a lake had radar...

Law enforcement need to write tickets for boats with missing lights. I see it all the time in Miami which is why I almost never run on plane at night even with radar and FLIR on a full size monitor






I’ve adequately addressed boats running in fog with no nav lights without writing tickets. Warned one or two, told the local tackle shops and outfitters I warned four or five, and within twenty four hours they were all buzzing about us arresting anyone without proper navy lights in or near an area of restricted visibility. Didn’t have to deal with it again all summer. Rumor mill not only blows things out of proportion, but it’s very effective in some areas. Can’t say it would work in Miami because I’ve never worked down there - but I absolutely agree it’s something that should ALWAYS be addressed, whether written or warned.
 
quote:

Originally posted by sugilbert

If the other driver had no lights, I see no reason Mrs. O'Leary should be charged. 17MPH is NOT an unreasonable speed if in open water.





NavRules are kind of an odd beast. Very crude paraphrase here - but if someone hits you and it’s their fault - you are also at fault for letting them hit you. I’ll expand on it later when I’m not typing on a smartphone without the book in front of me - but even as the stand-on, you’re still obligated to take early and effective action (I think I have one of those words wrong - it’s late) to avoid collision.
 
quote:

Originally posted by PascalG

quote:

Originally posted by getakey

I did not see a reference to a ski boat. I just assumed Kevin had a "big" boat






Did your click on the link? There is a picture of the boat. Looks like a ski boat to me. Or wake boat.








Yes - ski boat picture, but does not specifically say that is the boat. When I first read a different article before she charged, I thought they mentioned a bigger boat. going 17 mph in a wake/ski boat pushes a lot of water and bow is going to be up a bit.
 
Read more details tonight. O'Learys were in the smaller boat so t must have been in the ski boat. They hit and went up and over the bow of a larger boat. Could not have been that much larger to go up and over only going 17 mph.
The first article I read must have had the boats reversed as I'm sure it said O'Learys were on a larger boat. Some of the first articles also said O'Learys left the scene, but it was the other boat that left. Early reporting is always bad
 
I always heard the other boat left first, supposedly to seek medical attention
 
I too wondered what the circumstances might of been for the O'Leary boat to be charged if the O'Leary boat was travelling at what would be considered a reasonable speed for that night's weather. One thought was if the O'Leary boat was planning in a No Wake zone or if their boat was on plane within so many feet from shore where the local laws prohibited being on plane.
 
Another question might be that "who was actually behind the wheel of the O'Leary boat"

The moon was below the skyline, so the lake was dark. According to a statement released by Mr. O’Leary, he was a passenger in the speedboat and both he and the police have not said who was at the wheel. Mr. O’Leary did say the water-ski boat had its navigation lights turned off. Relatives of Mr. Poltash, who were not on the boat, have disputed this assertion, telling U.S. media outlets the boat was running with lights.
 
The article I read said the police had video surveillance from lake front homes showing the wife was driving and the larger boat had no lights.
 
quote:

Originally posted by WALSHIE

The article I read said the police had video surveillance from lake front homes showing the wife was driving and the larger boat had no lights.






Video surveillance camera that is able to show recognizable face 100 yards away on a night with no moon. Really!
 
quote:

Originally posted by mdoherty

quote:

Originally posted by WALSHIE

The article I read said the police had video surveillance from lake front homes showing the wife was driving and the larger boat had no lights.






Video surveillance camera that is able to show recognizable face 100 yards away on a night with no moon. Really!








I'm guessing the homes on this lake are high dollar homes with high dollar surveillance cameras. Yes, they can pick up enough detail to see who is driving...at night...and no moon.
 
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