Indy

But the sentiment is understandable considering the litigious society we live in. The many frivolous lawsuits brought forth daily bring a negative connotation to most. I think we can all agree our government and society have creating a system that has gone to far with litigation and when we hear of yet another multi-million dollar lawsuit we cringe.

SOME lawsuits do serve a purpose in forcing change for betterment in our lives. Hopefully something comes of this one and produces a safer environment for the racers.

DrGaryDC

Agreed that the only ones who will win this ridiculous lawsuit will be all attorneys involved. Injuries and death are all part of the risk in this sport and now there are fingers being pointed and blame. Boats are going faster and faster with more and more accidents

bajaholic

I have a question? A few years ago almost every race team had their own helicopters following the boats, Were these paid for by the teams themselves or was it the promoters costs?

And since this number has shrunk, was there additional safety personnel put in place to make up the difference? And if so, who's responsibility was it to pay for this?

GLH

On one side SBI/John Carbonell in my minimal dealings with him an idiot who unfortunately had a stranglehold on the Key West Offshore Races...

The other side Michael D. Allweiss Attorney, Managing Member/Chairman of the APBA Offshore Power Boat Racing, LLC, at one point and served as Chairman of the Offshore Division for the American Power Boat Association.

I do not know Mr. Allweiss but he was head or close to it of one of the organization around when the fragmentation of Offshore Racing happened in the US bringing it to the unregulated and unmarketable mess it is today. So was Carbonell...

The unfortunate catalyst the Gratton family.

Not much good will come of this, hopefully whatever is available for the Gratton family will be obtained without too big a chunk taken from the lawyers, and the liability insurance payers in this world will hold the bag as usual.

I am taking bets now... 3 to 1 no racing next year in Key West due to liability coverage not available...

And 2 to 1 on the disappearance of Organized Offshore Racing in the US within the next 3 years thanks to litigation.

Unfortunately Offshore Racing will go the way of Single Engine Airplane manufacturing and affordable healthcare went in the US and for the same reasons.

Now let's all meet for coffee at McDonald's maybe we can make a buck or a couple millions of them if we scorched our nuts like lawyers are doing to most of us...

Very sad state of affairs.

Ryan Beckley

A few years ago some of the larger teams paid to have there own rescue teams in the air. This was just a few of the few more well funded teams. Never was it "MOST" of the teams, rather a select few, I would sy 5-7 or less teams had
there own divers. Sometimes teams would split some of the costs.

The race organzations have one or two choppers in the air during each race with rescue divers in them. They also have rescue divers on boats in various place on the course.

scarab63

iTrader: (5)

Been thinking bruce....
I agree. If response time or chain of commands cost a man his life, then maybe something should be pursued.

With that said I feel judgment and caution should obviously be used especially in ” poor” conditions. And no matter what no rescue personnel is 100% guarantee for safety.

No pissin match just slightly different p.o.v.

Mike

Ted G

iTrader: (1)

Some of the race organizations have divers, the "rescue" part is one of the questions that needs to be answered.

POWERPLAY J

+1.

chewiekw

Question for racers, for the guys that race in the different organizations how do the safety standards differ? Do they all have about the same number of rescue boats and helicopters?

Racing is a risk and they should be standards that an organization has to deliver to the race teams.

In this case i think a lot of facts are still unknown. If their was equipment on board that should have provided a Joey with air and it malfunctioned how could SBI be held libel? How can a race organization guarantee to a race team that they will be at their boat in a certain amount of time?

Hopefully what ever comes from this safety standards improve and are universal across all organizations. And maybe this we start the unification process. Most important Joey's family can heel.

compedgemarine

this is part of the issue. there are no universal standards in play for offshore racing as there is no "parent" governing body. the issues being questioned by the lawsuit are, was there an ambulance on site and prepared, were the recue people and volunteers properly prepared with procedures and response plans and were those followed.
yes every racer knows the risk but they also pay an entry fee to the race. in exchange for that the promoter is supposed to provide safety pesonnel for the race. to those of you who race anything would you go out on the track if the promoter told you "we dont have any safety crews or ambulance but dont worry, the hospital is only a few miles away and my buddy said we could haul you there in the back of his station wagon"?
No. when you enter a sactioned event you are responsible for your vehicle meeting the safety requirements and for the promoter to have safety crews in place for the rescue that you cannot control.
I have been involve in a variety of auto racing and offshore racing for many years. the lack of safety knowledge in offshore scary. all the boats I built far surpassed what was required because I spent the time researching what was needed and what the proper way to do things was, something the safety inspectors had never done. I certainly do not know everything but I do know that for too many years the standard in offshore is not to learn from tragedy but hope it doesnt happen again.
as much as I hate lawsuits, sometimes the only way to force change is by lawsuits because you cannot count on people to just stand up and say "I screwed up, lets fix the problem".