MikeyFIN

So according to some 50ft Mystics are not designed to be safe even at 80 miles as thats the speed @ Aquamania flipped while cranking full to avoid a jet skier at Key West Worlds 2009...

HTRDLNCN

Words to live by right there..

OzarkKing

I am a personal injury attorney and damn proud of what I do. I help people from the snowplow driver whose rig flipped and has six herniated discs making a work comp claim to the boater at Lake Ozark who is injured due to the negligence of others. Its not a perfect system and I understand some of you as well as the masses have quite the negative view of my profession but when a guy is run over by a boat and it is due to the drivers negligence we need a system wherein the injured can recover for their losses. While we'd love to give them a time-machine to undo it or give them their leg back, we can't and therefore damages are measured in dollars. We are a community here so if you feel the need to flame this response, please respond privately or start a new thread dedicated to your views on attorneys.
I am also a boater and know that there are inherent risks to the recreation. I don't want to cover the losses out of pocket should something happen which is why I carry insurance.
As for "how fast is too fast?", I haven't learned firsthand yet but I know how fast I want to go is (n + 1) where 'n' is the current top speed I've achieved in mph.

phragle

iTrader: (3)

AS a PI atty. your job is to use the law maximize the reward for your client. Its not your job to decide right from wrong and who phucked up, that job belongs to the judge and jury. Somehow a good precentage of the public fail to grasp that concept.

On Time

Spot on. My former PI atty friend logged hours a day on daytime TV to keep his hand on the "pulse of the masses" to help plan how to present a case. Sorry, but the "jury of your peers" was a great idea but isn't in effect anymore.

OzarkKing

Thanks for the comments and if I might take it one step further "maximize the reward" might be better phrased "maximize the recovery" because I don't think the family of the 9-year-old who died in a helicopter crash consider any sum of money recovered on their behalf a reward.
Worth noting that in my practice I've also defended cases. I had the pleasure of representing Black Thunder Powerboats on what we considered a frivolous suit against them. I currently represent one of the drivers of "Bad Moon Risin'" (Performance Boat Brokerage Lake Ozark canopied MTI that I've seen go 171 mph at the Shootout) who has a business delivering boats and asked for my help (I asked him for a boat ride).

Smarty

Thank you for stepping in this discussion.

On Time

You guys don't need to get emotional. We all know attys that are decent people such as my good and close friend. And many defense attys. But PI guys are in business to make money, and it's not necesarily by doing what's "right". It's by doing what makes money. By prevailing in the suit against the party with money or insurance. By using the winds of mass public opinion to blow you across the goalpost.

If any sport flies in the face of mass public opinion, it's ours. Loud, consumptive, conspicuous. We need some of you on our side.

T2x

This thread echoes sentiments that I have held for years......

Fast boat accidents will doom fast boats eventually.

I have built, raced, sold, collected, and tested....just about every type of high performance powerboat imagineable.

My opinions are simple.....

1. Race boats (regardless of "pleasure" designations) belong on race courses with race control and safety procedures in effect.

2. Poker Runs need speed limits and strict safety rules. However, racing only belongs on a race course (see 1 above) and definitely without "civilians" on board.

3. I have seen people killed in high speed boating accidents at 50 mph and above. The faster you go on water the harder and more dangerous it gets, and the impacts go up exponentially (with both water and cockpit/hull/deck contact).

4. Nobody should drive a "fast boat" (use your own definition)without training and experience. The faster you go the more training and experience you need......

5. Money can't buy talent or common sense...but it can buy horsepower, fancy paint, state of the art laminates, party girls, and alcohol. Those ingredients when mixed together with a big ego and a pecker length issue, can, and do, create a lethal cocktail.

6. A truly fast boat is an impressive thing. Owning one is not necessarily admirable. Knowing how to handle a water borne rocket is the issue (JT, Stevie, Joey I, the Geico boys, Michael Seebold, and a (very) few other top guys can actually lay claim to this). There are far more fast boats than drivers qualified to handle them.

7. This has nothing to do with so called "freedoms". It's simply about maturity and common sense. If you run into me with your 150 mph rice burner on the parkway.... your lame*ss, ignorant, helmet less "freedom" might cost me my life and my "freedom" at the same time. To quote Billy Joel on the subject.......

"And there's always a place for the angry young man
With his fist in the air and his head in the sand
And he's never been able to learn from mistakes
So he can't understand why his heart always breaks
And his honor is pure and his courage is well
And he's fair and he's true and he's boring as hell"

When you have buried as many friends as I have in boat racing accidents...your petty lines in the sand will obviously blow away, but the scars in those left behind from those losses might as well be cast in ageless stone...for they last and hurt forever.

Nuff said...

T2x

On Time

The rest of your post is excellent but this ingredient causes the most heart ache:

FOR 2009

In 2009, the Coast Guard counted 4,730 accidents that involved 736 deaths, 3,358 injuries and approximately $36 million dollars of damage to property as a result of recreational boating accidents. Three-fourths (75%) of all fatal boating accidents in 2009 resulted from drowning. EIGHTY-FOUR PERCENT WERE NOT WEARING LIFE JACKETS! Seven out of ten who drowned were in open motorboats less than 21 feet in length.

The fatality rate was 5.8 deaths per 100,000 registered recreational vessels. This rate represents a 3.6% increase from last year's fatality rate of 5.6 deaths per 100,000 registered recreational vessels.

Compared to 2008, the number of accidents decreased 1.23%, the number of deaths increased 3.81% and the number of injuries increased 0.81%.

Only fourteen percent of deaths occurred on boats where the operator had received boating safety instruction.

Operator inattention, operator inexperience, excessive speed, improper lookout and alcohol rank as the top five primary contributing factors in accidents.

Alcohol use is the leading contributing factor in fatal boating accidents.

Eighteen children under age thirteen lost their lives while boating in 2009. 50% of the children who died in 2009 died from drowning. 44% of those who drowned were wearing a life jacket as required to do so by state law.

The most common types of vessels involved in reported accidents were open motorboats (46%), personal watercraft (22%), and cabin motorboats (14%).

The 12,721,541 boats registered by the states in 2009 represent a 0.23% increase from last year when 12,692,892 boats were registered.