Quote:
Originally Posted by ITD
Sorry people, but if she wasn't impaired by alcohol or another illegal substance, she should be let go and left alone.
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While, if I stretch a bit, I can see your point, I'm not sure I agree.
I'm guessing what you mean is that an accident is something anyone can have. Just a very unfortunate set of circumstances that come together at the same time, and result in tragedy. No evil, or ill will intented, it just happens. Why should someone go to jail?
But, wouldn't her speed, in the darkness of a overcast, rainy night be consider negligent? Very poor judgement at best. Her very poor judgement, then tuned into something much worse. The event occured because she acted in this way. I would think an island would be a pretty easy thing to avoid. Even at night, if operating in a reasonable manner, I would think it would be easy to see you are approaching an island.
I guess there probably are some situations where a terrible/fatal accident could take place, and an operator should not go to jail. But this is not one of them.
I came very close to having a pretty bad accident on the lake this past summer (I posted the story on his forum) in the middle of a bright, sunny, crystal clear afternoon. Although I was alone, I wonder what would have happened if I had a passenger(s), and had critically wounded them. Tough to think about. But my guess is that the captain is responsilbe for the safety of their passengers at all times. No questions.