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Originally Posted by Airwaves
Gavia immer wrote: As I mentioned in my original post, I am not going to be digging too deeply into looking for case law and suggested others (perhaps you?) could poke around and possibly find another case to quote. It doesn't change the fact that if the kayakers hadn't violated the lighting regulations in the first place there would have been no accident.
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What we know for sure is that the boat struck one kayak, and could have struck both boats. We don't know what the captain saw, only that he was going fast enough to break off the bow of the one boat he struck. The lake was lighted by the moon, but he didn't see at least one of the two boats ahead of him.
Another Canadian case involves a captain using his GPS while keeping a crew member at the bow with a light. The boat struck a cliff at top speed, sending the crew member to her death on rocks. Another crew member was injured.
I fault this captain for traveling faster than his vision ahead allowed, not keeping a proper watch ahead, and compromising his own night vision with GPS. It wasn't the inadequacy of the light that caused this collision. It was his operating at a speed that didn't allow him sufficient time to take action to avoid the collision.