An interesting decision involving the Shipowner’s Limitation of Liability Act was recently handed down in a ferryboat / speed boat collision case. The accident occurred on February 16, 2013. The ferryboat, carrying approximately five hundred passengers, was ten minutes into its thirty-minute voyage when it collided with the speed boat. One man aboard the speed boat died from injuries and another was hospitalized. No one aboard the ferryboat was hurt. The captains of both the ferryboat and privately owned speed boat (pictured to the right) claim they did not see each other until it was too late to take corrective action to avoid the collision. Evidence established that the ferryboat captain was using his mobile phone immediately prior to the accident. The decedent’s estate and the injured victim claim that the ferryboat captain was distracted by using his phone and was therefore negligent in causing the fatal collision.
A boating accident occurred in Miami’s Biscayne Bay between Northeast 87th Street and Northeast Bayshore Drive Christmas night. Witnesses state that a boat carrying fourteen people flipped over after hitting a wave while trying to enter a canal at the western edge of the bay. An area resident who witnessed the incident stated that everyone was at the front of the boat. Other witnesses stated that they did not see any of the boater wearing life jackets. Another resident, Ron Stamey, attempted to help the group from his kayak. He was able to get four of the fourteen out of the water. Ultimately, Miami Fire Rescue responded to the scene. Unfortunately, a woman was trapped under the boat. By the time the woman was freed, she did not have a pulse and was not breathing. The victim, identified as 80-year-old Lidia Tapanes, was transported to North Shore Medical Center. Her condition is currently unknown.
Monday afternoon, around 3:30 p.m., a man disappeared while jet skiing in the waters of Blue Lagoon in Miami, Florida in the area off the Dolphin expressway east of 57th avenue. It is unknown how the accident occurred but 32-year-old Manuel Aponte was heading back to shore with other riders when his jet ski came to a sudden stop and he flew head first into the water and vanished. According to witnesses, it was as if he had hit something with his jet ski because the jet ski stopped short and Mr. Aponte flew over it landing head first into the water. Fellow jet ski riders attempted to find Mr. Aponte without success. Monday evening and Tuesday Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission continued the search for Mr. Aponte’s body until it was recovered at 7:00 a.m. this morning. The investigation into how the accident occurred is ongoing and will likely continue for weeks.
A 22 year-old male Royal Caribbean passenger on-board the Independence of the Seas was reported as having intentionally jumped off the ship’s twelfth deck in the early morning hours of Thursday, December 22, 2016. The ship was approximately 33 miles southeast of Key Largo and was heading back to South Florida after a four-night trip.
Jimmy Graves, a 15-year-old boy who attended Vero Beach High School, died after being thrown off his friend’s boat into the Indian River Lagoon. The incident is being investigated by Florida’s Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission who stated the operator, a 14-year-old boy, have a boating license.
