Injuries caused by boat run overs occur with some regularity in Florida. Just in the past week, Logan Farquhar of St. Augustine lost his leg when he and four others in a fishing boat were run over in the Tolomato River by a ski boat.

Our law firm has vast experience in handling personal injuries resulting from boats running over victims who were either in the water or on another watercraft. One of our recent cases involved a snorkeler who was run over by a speed boat in South Florida. The impact by the boat’s propellers caused significant injuries to our client including a nearly severed left arm and fractured pelvis. Another case we recently handled involved a passenger who was run over by a Yamaha WaveRunner while riding as a passenger on the back of another personal watercraft. This accident resulted in our client suffering fractures to her left tibia and fibula. These cases are just examples of the various types of boat accident injury claims our attorneys handle.

Knowing the nuances of boating laws and what evidence to gather is often the difference in bringing a successful claim. When preparing to represent a boating injury victim in a lawsuit, we identify all appropriate Federal and Florida boating laws which govern accidents. These laws, depending on the circumstance, require that certain lights or flags displays, obligates the operator to keep an appropriate look out, maintain safe speed and distance. Knowledge of these law help forming the building blocks of a legal claim for compensation. With the appropriate legal framework laid out, we then concentrate on aggressively gathering evidence supporting our client’s claims and disproving the defendant’s defenses. When appropriate, we retain experts who can take the raw evidence we gather and transform it in visual display to show the judge and jury what exactly happened. The graphic below was generated from data we obtained from global positioning units maintained by two boats involved in a run over case. From the data stored in the GPS units, we were able to pinpoint the time and location of the accident, the speed of the offending vessel and whether a boat violated Florida boating safety law.

From our knowledge of the law and efforts in gathering evidence, we are in the position to file offensive motions designed to win key liability issues, explain the strengths of our client’s claim and weakness of the defendant’s case at settlement conferences as well as present an intelligent and convincing case at trial.

Our attorneys are boaters and take pride in helping clients who were injured due to negligence of others. If you were in a boating accident and would like to learn more about your legal rights, please contact us and we will be happy to review your case an provide a free consultation.