SPRING BREAK BOAT RENTAL ACCIDENTS
Every year at this time in Florida people come down from all over the U.S. to enjoy Spring Break weather, the beaches, the attractions, and also to take advantage of boat rentals and JetSki rentals. Florida makes it very easy for out-of-state residents to rent boats and JetSkis. If a person is born before January 1, 1988 then that renter does not need to take any test or take any class in order to rent a boat or Jetski. But this same easy-to-rent policy can be the foundation for a boat rental accident or JetSki rental collision, and that is because the renter does not need any training in order to operate a vessel or JetSki that will go very fast. To say it bluntly, any person born before January 1, 1988 may have zero experience operating a boat or JetSki but they can rent one if the have the money to do so.
At this time of Spring Break in Florida, the unofficial kick-off to the boating season, Florida is inundated with people who have very little boating experience but who are ready to cut loose during Spring Break. At www.888BoatLaw.com–a law firm dedicated to handling boating and JetSki injuries–what we have witnessed is that a passenger can sustain serious injuries due to the fault of the vessel operator or from the fault of another passenger or another vessel. Another source of a boat injury or JetSki injury is the very simplistic and cursory nature of any training the boat and JetSki workers give. Usually, less than10 minutes.
COMMON BOAT RENTAL AND JETSKI RENTAL INJURIES
The most common boat rental injuries we see arise from boat collisions. We have also unfortunately seen many boat-propeller injury cases and have had as many as five of those cases in our boat accident law office at one time. Another very common case is what we term boat “wake” injury cases. This is where the passenger is sitting forward in the vessel and the vessel operator hits a large wave or wake without reducing speed and without altering course. The front-section passenger is ejected into the air and comes down just as the boat rises into the second wave. Boat wake injury cases often produce severe back injury cases, head injuries, broken hip, broken pelvis injuries, and broken limbs. These types of injuries are greatly under-appreciated and we at www.888BoatLaw.com have handled many of them and have several of them right now.
The most common JetSki rental injuries arise from collisions with other JetSkis or boats. Jetski collisions often produce very severe orthopedic injuries and can also result in death. In Tampa Bay for instance near the Courtney-Campbell Parkway a collision between two JetSkis killed both operators of the two JetSkis. One other recurrent injury we see is those arising from JetSki tours where the weather is too rough or the boating traffic is too heavy to run the tour—but the tour operator runs it anyway.
Right now the Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission (“FWC”) is warning boat and Jetski renters to be careful who they rent from, and to make sure that the rental business is a licensed “livery”—the term used for boat rental and JetSki rental businesses. FWC reminds spring breakers renting boats and personal watercraft to know Florida’s boating safety regulations and rent from a permitted livery (govdelivery.com)
If you have been injured in a boat rental or JetSki rental accident it is important you choose specialist attorneys in this field like our experienced attorneys at www.888BoatLaw.com. Our firm has been regularly representing passengers hurt on JetSkis and boats in Florida. All of Florida. You can have confidence in our 25 years’ experience successfully recovering for injured claimants.
CALL US NOW AT
888-B-O-A-T-L-A-W (888-262-8529), or contact us through our website at www.888BOATLAW.COM.
