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WHO'S LIABLE IF I DO GET HIT?
On Aug 22, 4:08 pm, "Lee Bell" wrote:
KingOfTheApes wrote Well, there are islands on the water and the batteries are left behind on the islands. I suppose it's happened, but it darned sure doesn't happen often. Boats big enough to carry batteries, don't work without them. They have to have them to start the motors. It's really unlikely that anybody would go to all the trouble to drive their boat out to an island with a spare battery on board, change the battery while on the island and go to all the touble to take the battery off the boat just so they can leave it someplace where it will later have to be collected by another power boater. It could happne, but I don't know why. Batteries may get damaged by sea water or just get depleted. I have one on my canoe to power my trolling motor. I changed to AGM though because they are water and leakproof. It's much more likely that any batteries you round were taken to the island for use by somebody camping there. They may or may not have gotten to the island by power boat, but the batteries you see almost certainly weren't lift there because they are power boaters. Many people that are into motorboating are poorly educated and couldn't care less about the consequences of their actions. I think MOTORBOATING IS LARGELY FOR COUCH POTATOES THAT WANT TO HAVE A DEGREE OF ADVENTURE IN THE GREAT OUTDOORS. I, personally, would prefer that they stay home watching baseball and drinking beer. Well, maybe they heard of the coral reefs in the tropical waters of the Caribbean dying because of all the pollution and motorboats that anchor in the wrong places. In more than 45 years of diving, and boating in the Caribbean, no, I've never heard of it. I have heard of them dying because of fertilizer, sewerage and other chemicals washed our from those on land who have less consideration than either you or I do. I have heard of reefs destroyed by sewage outfalls operated by Miami Dade, Broward and Palm Beach Counties. I have heard of reefs destroyed by "accidental" leaks of millions of gallons of raw sewage from Miami Dade about twice a year. I have heard of reefs destroyed by those that dispose of thousands of tires as "artificial reefs" that nothing ever lives on. Here's a clue. Gas floats. Reefs don't. Anchors don't do much damage and their use is not limited to motor boats. Sailboats and even kayaks carry them too. Lee My anchor weighs 1 1/2 lbs... Terrible threat to the reefs. How much you need for a motorboat? But motorboat pollution contributes to "the soup" out there too. You can even smell the gas, and I doubt it that it would be safe to swim in the intracostal anymore. Their main threat though is to life and property... "Here are some startling statistics regarding boating accidents from the United States Coast Guard: In 2005, states and jurisdictions reported a total of 12,942,414 registered recreational boats compared with 12,781,476 in 2004. The 4,969 boating accidents reported in 2005 resulted in 697 fatalities, 3,451 injuries, and $38,721,088 in property damage. Florida had 973,859 registered motorboats and 603 boating accidents in 2005. Approximately 70% of all fatal boating accident victims drowned. The most reported type of accident was a collision with another vessel. Overall, carelessness/reckless operation, operator inattention, excessive speed, and operator inexperience are the leading contributing factors of all reported accidents. The most common types of boats involved in reported accidents were open motorboats (45%), personal watercraft (PWC) (26%), and cabin motorboats (14%). Increases were observed in the number of reported fatalities involving PWC, cabin motorboats, inflatables, sailboats, and houseboats from 2004. A decrease was observed in the number of fatalities involving canoes/kayaks and rowboats from the number of fatalities reported in 2004." http://www.rueziffra.com/practiceAreas.php?id=14 |
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