Miami Beach Man Cleared in Deadly Columbus Day Boating Accident

A Miami Beach boater has been cleared of criminal wrongdoing in the October 2006 Columbus Day Regatta party crash in Biscayne Bay that killed two college students. After an exhaustive investigation, prosecutors on Monday dropped a misdemeanor charge of violating navigational rules against Roland Desrochers, who skippered one of four boats involved in the fatal wreck. Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/03/30/1554312/miami-beach-man-cleared-in-deadly.html#ixzz0lZTaDqEr

7-Year-Old Girl Killed In ATV Accident - Putnam County

This is not a maritime case but is local and involves safety on vehicles. Tragic loss of a little girl. Dwayne

INTERLACHEN, Fla. - The Florida Highway Patrol said a 7-year-old Interlachen girl riding on an all-terrain vehicle Sunday evening was killed when the driver braked to avoid hitting two dogs and the vehicle overturned.

Driver of boat gives his account

Todd Spangler said he didn't whip an inner tube carrying two women into a dock at West Shores Lake. Spangler said the women — his wife, Kim, and their close friend, Jennifer Finke-Dwyer — “skipped across the water like a rock” and didn't hit the dock until 3 to 6 seconds after they had fallen off of the tube he pulled behind his boat.

Teen Drowns in Trout River; One Man Missing in Julington Creek

A 16-year-old's body was pulled from the Trout River late Sunday night, ending the search for teen who fell into the water while fishing near Main Street. The Jacksonville Sheriff's Office has identified the teenager as Ladre McNeal of Jacksonville. Rescue crews have also called off a separate search for a man who fell off a small boat in Julington Creek. Police say that man is 29 year old Shane Wiggins of Jacksonville.The U.S. Coast Guard and Sheriff's Office rushed to the Trout River near Main Street around 4:30 Sunday afternoon after reports the teen fell in the water trying to retrieve a bait box near rocks and never surfaced. Dive teams found McNeal's body before 10 p.m. and said the drowning is still under investigation. Around 5 p.m. another possible drowning sent teams from the Coast Guard, Sheriff's Office, Jacksonville Fire and Rescue, Clay County Sheriff's Office and St. Johns County Sheriff's Office to Julington Creek near the St. Johns County line. Bujeda says a man and woman were fishing in a small boat when the man fell off the boat and never came up from the water.

One killed, 2 injured after boat strikes bridge - Jacksonville Florida Boating Accident Lawyers

FREEPORT — Recovery teams discovered the body of a missing man in Choctawhatchee Bay on Monday evening, five hours after he and two others were ejected from a boat that struck the U.S. 331 bridge.The body of Freeport resident William Andrew Moraga, 71, was found at around 6:30 p.m. about 30 yards from the crash, which also injured two others onboard — a man and a 15-year-old girl. The man identified as 73-year-old Harry Lairy Jr., and the 15-year-old is Moraga's granddaughter, Angelica Morales, according to Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission spokesman Stan Kirkland.

Lady Mary Video

Underwater footage of fishing boat Lady Mary The Coast Guard working with the New Jersey State Police verified the position of the fishing boat Lady Mary, which sank southeast of Cape May on Wednesday, April 29, 2009, with the use of a remotely operated vehicle. The external survey by the ROV shows the Lady Mary generally sitting upright on the bottom. The survey did not reveal any evidence of the remaining missing crew members. (Video provided by the US Coast Guard and New Jersey State Police) Uploaded by ssiditsk on 05/06/09

Lady Mary Sinking - Coast Guard Hearing

Error in recording emerg radio (epirb) hurt search Vessel monitoring system programmer: 2 dozen boats near Lady Mary did not aid sinking vessel.Two dozen boats were in the general area of a stricken scalloping vessel when it sank off Cape May in March, but none came to its aid or joined a later search for survivors, a U.S. fisheries representative told a Coast Guard inquest board today. Testimony: Two boats passed near sinking trawler

CAPE MAY, N.J. - For two to three hours after a scallop boat is believed to have sunk off Cape May, the Coast Guard heard no mayday calls or any other radio reports that something was wrong. That was the testimony Monday from two Coast Guard officers as the agency resumed its hearing into the sinking of the Lady Mary, which went down off Cape May on March 24. Only one the seven crew members survived. The lapse in time from when the boat is believed to have sunk, and when the Coast Guard first heard something was wrong continued to be a main focus of the inquiry. The hearing was suspended in April to allow the ship's captain to hire a lawyer. A Coast Guard inspector says the Lady Mary passed a safety inspection last July. In another article it was said: Two crew members of the doomed scallop boat that sank off the coast last month may have been under the influence of marijuana when the ship went down, killing six of the seven crew members aboard, a witness in the hearing of the fatal sinking testified this morning. Timothy Smith, who died in the sinking, had high levels of the components of marijuana in the blood samples analyzed after the March 24 sinking, said Anthony Costantino, president and CEO of Drug Scan, the Pennsylvania lab hired by the U.S. Coast Guard to analyze the results of the blood tests. Another story goes on: A scallop boat that sank off the coast of Cape May may have tangled its fishing gear with another ship or an obstruction on the bottom of the ocean, the attorney for the ship's owner said yesterday. A cutter with a ROV was used to look at the vessel.

This article indicates that that Owner of the Lady Mary was critical of the Coast Guard Response.

Palm Valley Boating Accident - 1/3 of all boating accidents in Florida are boats hitting docks

A state official in charge of managing the Intracoastal Waterway reiterated this week that docks in Palm Valley extend too far toward the center of the channel, hampering boaters in an area where five people were killed when their powerboat slammed into a tugboat moored at a dock. Also, the straightness of the 8-mile stretch of waterway through Palm Valley encourages some boaters to go too fast, officials said... About a third of Florida boating accidents in 2007 involved boats hitting docks and other stationary objects. In its latest annual report, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission said 109 accidents involved fixed objects compared to 194 in which boats or other vessels collided with each other. ---------------------------------------------- When a boat strikes a stationary object it is called an allision not a collision under the maritime law. The law and legal liabilities of the potential parties are different than when there is a collision between two vessels. Dwayne

Boat's driver not intoxicated, lawyer says

Some of the passengers might have been drinking, but the person at the wheel of a 22-foot boat that crashed into an Intracoastal Waterway construction site Sunday wasn't intoxicated, an attorney representing three of the victims said Friday. A statement from the Medical Examiner's Office seems to back up the claim. Five people were killed and nine injured in the 7:15 p.m. wreck about a mile north of the Palm Valley Bridge. It started off as a Sunday cruise to St. Augustine. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, National Transportation Safety Board and Coast Guard continued their joint investigation Friday into what caused the boat to veer into a 25-foot tugboat.