They can’t intentionally, but they have the right of way and if you get in their way it is your fault if they run you down.
Some factors that go into this are there navigation lights etc...
But generally, it is always your fault.
We have a lot of people here on Free Republic who were in the Navy and are very angry that sailors are injured, missing and dead.
Rightly so.
They are proud of their service and recall that they were disciplined to be alert while on duty on the bridge.
Rightly so.
They want to see that measures are taken to preclude this from happening again.
Rightly so.
Determining the “Proximate Cause” of this is going to take some time and a whole lot of investigation.
It could very well be that there was negligence involved on our ships.
That does not means that our sailors behavior was the “Proximate Cause” of this incident.
Have you ever seen a civil trial where percentages of blame are handed out?
That is what is going on here.
We will see what the percentages of blame are.