Quote:
Originally Posted by ITD
So let's suppose in this example there was a few witnesses nearby and God forbid boat A (being passed) was run over by boat B (the boat doing the passing). (I purposely did not use laser and formula to describe the boats because boat brands is the last thing I'm thinking about here and I'm a little disturbed it was even brought up.) So again, let's suppose the captain is alone in boat a and is killed in the crash, Boat b has minor injuries. A forensic team determines that Boat B was passing boat A, no one knows if Boat A was maintaining proper lookout or not, who do you think would be found responsible for the crash??
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That's up to the Forensics team. We would only have Boat B's side of the story. Assuming Boat B was being truthful in his description of the incident, and the reconstruction team did their homework... (Boat B's story is plausible) my guess would be BOTH parties would be to blame. Perhaps with differing levels. Boat A would be partially to blame - Failing To Keep a Proper Lookout and turning into the path of the Boat B. Boat B would be partially to blame - Failure to Keep a Proper Distance not taking the appropriate evasive action.
The way the rules are written for the Sea, there usually requires a screw-up by BOTH vessels for a vessel on vessel accident to occur. In the instance we have been debating, Boat B did in fact have enough distance as there was no collision.
Here is a link to a video in which a USCG boat runs over a small runabout in broad daylight.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0lR5hPJkQc
Both are at fault here! The small speedboat has right of way and is the Stand On vessel. The USCG boat is the GIVE WAY vessel. In the video you can clearly hear there are no sirens or horns blaring on the USCG vessel. Just a loudhailer that you cannot hear in the video.
The small boat didn't see the USCG boat.. and the USCG boat didn't GIVE WAY.
Woodsy