DRUNK DRIVER BOAT OPERATORS ON JULY THE 4TH

If you were struck by or injured by the action of a drunk boater over the 4^th of July weekend give us a call. This maritime law firm has been suing boaters operating their vessel under the influence for more than 25 years. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission recently noted that for the last 4^th of July weekend they arrested 93 impaired boat operators. The link for that post is here: FWC promotes awareness and heightened enforcement for boating under the influence during Operation Dry Water this weekend (govdelivery.com)  Of course that does not comprise all of the boat operators who were above the legal limit—but not caught—and caused injury to passengers or other boaters.

The implications for a boat operator driving drunk are similar for a drunk driver of a vehicle, but the law that applies to the boat operator are vastly different than those that govern auto accidents. That is why we strongly advise you not to be pulled in by an auto accident law firm. The law will be different for the boating accident case. For the majority of cases involving boat crash injuries, maritime law, not Florida law will apply. The attorneys you choose to handle you case need to know what law applies, what is the statute of limitations, and where to file suit against the at-fault drunk boat operator. Don’t leave your case to chance. Hire the law firm that has been representing victims of drunk boat operators for more than 25 years.

During the three boating holidays of Memorial Day, 4^th of July, and Labor Day we have represented injured boat passengers who sustained their injuries as a result of the negligence of a boat captain. In some of those boating injury cases the captain runs his boat into another boat, but also some of those boating injury cases came from passengers injured on the drunk driver’s own vessel. The most common of those own-boat injury cases are wake cases where the owner is travelling too fast and strikes a wave or wake at a high rate of speed. This often cause the passengers to be launched into the air and then strike the deck or seating area. These are serious injury cases that can involved severe back injury cases, broken hip or pelvis, and head trauma.

The FWC has pointed out–and the statistics back up the fact–that many of the boating injury cases involve alcohol use on the part of the captain of the vessel. This is especially prevalent during the three major boating holiday weekends. If you were injured due to the negligence of an impaired boating captain, call the boating injury specialists. We handle these cases every day.