Labor Day 2020

Labor Day 2020 Boating Accidents

LABOR DAY is one of those holidays where we at the 888-BOAT-LAW law firm see numerous boating injuries. This occurs year after year. The most common Labor Day boating accidents we see are: 1. boat collisions, 2. propeller-strike injuries, and 3. wake cases. “Wake cases” occur when a boat operator travels too fast over an oncoming wake and the person on the bow is thrown into the air from their seat. We have handled many of these bow-rider-launching wake cases, and we currently are handling several propeller-strike cases right now.

There is no mystery why Labor Day in Florida produces boating accidents. Lot of people out on the water. Lot of boats. Alcohol. Boat operators with very little experience. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission states that in 2019—the last year for which statistics are available–there were over 961,000 boats registered in Florida. This is more than any other state by far. In Florida, there were 453 boating injuries in 2019, and 723 boating accidents. The U.S. Coast has stated that alcohol use is the leading contributing factor in 23% of boating deaths in 2019.

The U.S. Coast Guard has also stated that for 2019 where the cause of death was known, that 79% of all boating fatalities were from drowning. 86% of those drowning fatalities were not wearing a life jacket. As to inexperienced boating operators 70% of deaths occurred on vessels where the operator had inadequate safety instruction. There were 171 propeller-strike cases in 2019.

The most common type of vessels involved injury casesin 2019 were open motorboats (45%) and personal water craft (i.e., “JetSkis”) 19%. In 2019, the vessels most involved in death cases were open motorboats 48%, kayaks 14%, and JetSkis 8%.

For 2019, the five most prevalent contributing factors to boating accidents was: operator inattention, failure to keep proper lookout, operator inexperience, excessive speed, and alcohol.

We are on the front lines of boating injury cases. This is what we do. We are boat accident attorneys.

CALL US AT 888-BOAT-LAW.

Call Us on Labor Day. We Are Ready.