Fort Lauderdale Injury Lawyer Blog

Two 16-year old boys operating a boat were arrested and booked into the juvenile assessment center in connection with a boating accident that resulted in a teenage girl losing a part of her leg earlier this year. According to the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office report, the boat motored into a restricted swimming area within 500 feet of the Juno Beach fishing pier. The boys disregarded horns and signals from lifeguards.

The juveniles, whose names were not released, were both charged with leaving the scene of an accident with injury, reckless operation of a vessel and culpable negligence in the February 5th crash that injured a 15-year-old girl.

The girl and her two friends were in the water south of the Juno Pier when the boat approached. As she was trying to climb on board, the driver throttled the motor, in an apparent attempt to keep the boat from getting beached, according to an eyewitness.

The boat struck the girls, knocking them over, and the girl's leg was struck by the propeller. Doctors were later forced to amputate part of her right leg.

After the injury, the boat left the scene and the boys made no attempt to notify any law enforcement agency, the report stated.

Teenage boys and power boats make a dangerous combination. They often lack the maturity to handle the horsepower at their fingertips and are oblivious to the potential for danger. Parents frequently hand over the keys to the family boat with out making sure that their children have the training necessary to safely operate these vessels. As a result, boating accidents involving minors are an all too unfortunate occurrence in South Florida.

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National Safe Boating Week is set for May each year. Its purpose is to recognize the importance of boat safety, particularly in South Florida, where there are more registered boats than in any other area of the country. After Monroe County (the Keys), Miami-Dade ranks second for boating accidents and Broward County (Fort Lauderdale) is not far behind.

While the overall number boating accidents including personal watercraft, is down, accidents still frequently occur when boats collide with fix objects like docks, channel markers, etc. A lot of these accidents can be attributed to driver negligence, inattention, inexperience or even intoxication.

The vast majority of boaters involved in an accident have not even taken a boating safety class. Florida law requires all boaters under 21 years of age to pass a class before they can operate a boat.

With regard to personal watercraft, such as a jet ski, a person must be at least 14 years of age to operate a personal watercraft in Florida and a person must be at least 18 years of age to rent a personal watercraft in Florida.

National Safe Boating Week serves as a reminder to us all to be careful while we are operating our boats. It should also serve as a clarion call to the Florida legislature to make our waterways safer. The legislature needs to carefully consider initiatives to raise the age limits for jet skis from 14 to 16 and to require a safe boating class for personal water craft.

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