Boating Accident/Death off Diamond Island

[jeffk]

Originally Posted by ITD

... If I am right, the question I have is would a reasonable person think 25 mph is too fast at night. I would have to argue no, a reasonable person would think 25 mph is a safe speed at night, ...

I would agree that 25 is safe if you have unimpaired visibility and know you are in a safe position to be going at that speed. I have several times at night
found myself uncertain of my position or with reduced visibility and I slowed to minimum speed or stopped. At that point 25 was not a safe speed. There is no absolute safe speed. It depends on the conditions and by descriptions that night it was foggy and visibility was limited. I have to believe she couldn't see the island because if she had she would have turned. A reasonable person would have stopped or slowed once visibility was limited.

I also think we are splitting semantic hairs over whether to call this an accident. One definition of an accident is "an unfortunate event resulting especially from carelessness or ignorance". This event seems to qualify. However there are plenty of legal definitions of responsibility for damage or death as a result of such an accident. The law simply assigns a different level of consequence compared to damages or death caused with intent. People are held responsible and punished for accidents all the time and what she is charged with is only one example of such a law.

Here's a less charged example. If you hired a person to clear trees on your property and he dropped one on your house thereby damaging it wouldn't you expect him to pay for fixing the damage. Surely it was an "accident" but you would be legally entitled to compensation.

I had previously given an example of sliding on glare ice. I had such an accident but was fortunate enough not to kill anyone. I did damage someone's property and guess what, I had to pay for it. I was going only about 15 MPH, had snow tires, have anti-lock brakes, and there was absolutely nothing I could do to control the car. I got no ticket but I was still responsible.

Obviously those were civil rather than criminal examples but it establishes the principal of responsibility for accidental damage. For some accidents, such as negligent homicide, a criminal penalty is attached as well.

There is nothing unfair about her prosecution. Any one of us would be and should be subject to the same treatment. She has a chance to defend herself in the court and we'll see what the result is.

[VtSteve]

Originally Posted by jeffk

I have several times at night
found myself uncertain of my position or with reduced visibility and I slowed to minimum speed or stopped. At that point 25 was not a safe speed. There is no absolute safe speed. It depends on the conditions and by descriptions that night it was foggy and visibility was limited. I have to believe she couldn't see the island because if she had she would have turned. A reasonable person would have stopped or slowed once visibility was limited.

Deja Vu Jeff. I once found myself heading towards a land mass and questioning myself as to why I didn't think it was the right way. I made a flimsy excuse to my passengers about a bug in my eye, then slowed to a stop.


I go too slow when it's less than perfect out at night, even in the daytime. But sometimes it's inevitable that you make mistakes. Some mistakes hurt worse than others. When others are in my boat, I'm pretty anal about it.