By Blur Loterina

Have you had a particularly sunny day spending time in a boat or yacht that turned awry due to unexpected accident on board and at sea? Well, misfortunes do happen at the most unexpected times. And sometimes, it leaves serious physical injuries. Accidents on boats are particularly tricky since this involve the sea and its undetermined depths. You would never know if you’re going to spend the last days of your life not on dry land… Well, before we go into the gory details…we might as well tackle your rights as victims of injury which resulted from accidents on boats and what legal actions you can do.

We are going to give you the important facts you need to know, before anything else. Did you know that there are almost thirteen million recreational numbered boats in the United States? Meanwhile, boating accident resulting to injuries number close to six thousand every year and cause over thirty nine million dollars in property damage. Last 2002, in a boating accident case, 750 people were killed. In almost 40% of these boating accidents case fatalities involve alcohol. Fatalities are most often the result of drowning.

Once accidents on a boat or any vessel at sea occur, authorities should be informed quickly about it. The case is required to be reported to the federal or state authorities especially when following circumstances happen: the accident causes the death or disappearance, indicating death or injury, of any individual; the boat accident caused injuries to the persons in it and requires medical care beyond first aid and/or if damages to the vessel or property exceeds five hundred dollars.

Boating accidents involving open motorboats, personal watercrafts (PWCs) or cabin motorboats are commonly reported cases. Accidents may happen due to collisions with fixed objects or moving vessels, capsizing or sinking, fire or explosion, falls or ejection overboard and other circumstances. Often, negligence resulting from operator inattention is the foremost contributing factor in a case of accidents on boats, according to the Boating Accident Report Database (BARD) system. Boat operator’s carelessness or recklessness and operator’s inexperience or excessive speed follows in frequency are also causes of these types of accidents.

Physical harm to a person caused by a boating accident case must be filed with the proper authorities within 48 hours that accident happened. On the other hand, if only vessel or property damage were caused by the boating accident case, case can be filed ten days from the occurrence.

If you or someone you know have been injured in a boating accident case and operator negligence is involved, you may be eligible to file a claim or a lawsuit to seek compensation for damages including injuries, medical costs, pain and suffering, lost wages, and property or vessel damages. This may compensate your could-have-been good day at sea, but again maybe any amount wouldn’t. Sad events, these types of accidents.

The Author is a 26 year-old Communication Arts graduate, with a major in Journalism. Right after graduating last 1999, she worked for one year as a clerk then became a Research, Publication and Documentation Program Director at a non-government organization, which focuses on the rights, interests and welfare of workers for about four years.

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