Posted on 01/18/2018 1:36:54 AM PST by Doogle
A fisherman who jumped ship into bone-chilling water to dodge a speeding motorboat has filed a $372,500 lawsuit, alleging the other driver was distracted by his cellphone just before the dramatic crash caught on video.
This idiot had been cited before for distracted driving. People like him should not own or operate a boat. He is very lucky he didn’t kill the three people on the boat he hit. I have seen similar incidents here in Panama City in the pass going out into the Gulf of Mexico and there have been some deaths in some instances.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3623419/posts
He didn’t even slow down, but kept barreling right on top of them! It’s like he wasn’t even looking at where he was going! Imagine doing that while driving an SUV on the road!
This is why we can’t have nice things. Self absorbed idiots operating powerful machines.
That’s why even small fishing boats need to have .50 cal machine guns, a great equalizer.
They should have gone for more.
He owes them for a new boat as well as the dunk.
Sadly, lawsuits may be the only way some people learn.
I don’t have to imagine it - I witness it every day.
+1. Great idea.
I wonder if the negligent boat driver was criminally charged.
In any event if I was on a jury deciding damages I would vote to award the fisherman and his companions MORE than they are asking for - maybe $500,000 each plus legal fees and another $50,000 for the owner of the wrecked bass boat.
Rodney?! Is that you!
Criminal charges & jail time too!
Saw this on Fox News channel yesterday.
I fish. My boat is proportional smaller than some of the big luxury boats. I’ve seen some pretty stupid moves by some of these ‘cruisers’. I’ve also seen fisherman do stupid things like anchoring in narrow channels that would be the only place big boats could go (of course the ‘cruisers’ can’t be going fast and not pay attention to other boats in a crowded area).
I keep an air horn handy. Sometimes it works.
Once trolling in open water a slightly larger boat came up my Stern on a non intercept angle but across my lines. I blew the horn and waved. Nothing. Started reeling in the lines. Too late. One reel started to sing out till the line broke. When the boat was parallel I shouted there were lines out. The woman with the driver yelled back “He’s deaf”. I yelled back “is he blind too”. Hopefully he sucked enough line into his propeller to blow the oil seal.
I had a very close encounter many years ago on the Miss Belmar (deep sea)fishing at night off Belmar...
The captain had noticed a container ship barring down on our location...it quickly went from “ pull up anchors” to “ cut the lines”..as he reversed out of the way...the radio contact, the flashing lights, the horns,useless...quick thinking on our captains part saved lives...missed us by 20-25 yards ..
but I’ll never forget that steel wall passing by...
It’s lucky the three jumped out of the boat. They would all have certainly been killed, otherwise. Insane negligence on the part of the other boat operator.
When younger (an fearless)I used to head out in a 15 foot wooden runabout, around 4-am, before First light. Would fish near, but not in the shipping lanes. Those monsters would loom up and pass maybe 100 yds away. Even that far they were scary. The wake afterwards would toss you quite a bit.
I fish north shore Long Island. But once a year a vendor would take a group of his clients out of Belmar NJ fishing, usually for gorilla blues. I believe once it was the Miss Belmar. Usually though it was smaller charter boats (not party boats). Took my 12 year old son once. He was used to catching 2-4 lb blues. He was amazed at how much fight the big gorilla blues gave him.
...it might have been blues that night, or mackerel...
Someone with a boat that size can probably afford to buy the right friends.
Ah mackerel. 6 hooks all with fish.
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