Boating Accidents Can Be Deadly
Brian O Sutter
Personal Injury
It should come as no surprise to any resident in Florida that with such warm weather throughout the year, and a state that juts out into the ocean, many residents and tourists take advantage of all the water with some boating. And when you have many boats on the water, there’s bound to be the occasional accident.But sometimes the accidents can be tragic and, worse yet, easily avoided. And while Florida has its fair share of boating accidents, that doesn’t mean that Americans can’t get hurt in boats in other parts of the continent. And that’s exactly what happened to one American up north.
A Summer Bird Tragedy
It’s common for Florida to play host to “snowbirds,” people from either the northern United States or even Canada, that come down like migratory birds to spend the winter in the warm waters of Florida. However, in this case, Gary Poltash, 64, of Florida, was a “summer bird” who went up to Canada to enjoy the warm weather of the southern part of the country during the summer.
Unfortunately, that decision cost him his life. On August 24th, 2019, at 11:30 in the evening, Poltash, vacationing in Southern Ontario, a province of Canada, decided to enjoy some time out on the water, and took out a boat, a smaller pleasure craft for wakeboarding, out onto the water. He came across another boat, and though he didn’t know it, one of the passengers was Kevin O’Leary, a noted Canadian celebrity who had appeared on such programs as Dragon’s Den.
What Poltash didn’t know was that O’Leary should have been driving the boat, but wasn’t. He had handed control of the boat over to his wife, who was both unlicensed and had a tendency to speed without full control of the much larger 13-person craft. When Poltash realized the larger boat was bearing down on him, he used the horn to alert the other boat, but that warning was ignored.
A collision occurred that took Poltash’s life at the scene of the accident, and the life of a passenger in the other boat a few days later, due to critical injuries. O’Leary and his wife are now facing accusations of negligence for that summer tragedy.
A Boat Is Still A Vehicle
Although most people in Florida use their boats primarily for recreational use, this does not change the fact that a boat is still a powerful, often motorized vehicle that must be used responsibly. Even if Florida’s waters don’t have lanes, traffic signals, or other “rules of the road,” that doesn’t mean there are no rules, and it means that boat owners must still exercise the same kinds of responsibility on a boat as they would in a car.
Boat owners must be aware of safety regulations, and they must drive responsibly. If, for example, you get into an accident with another boat and you were drunk, the fact that you operated a boat while intoxicated is just as frowned upon legally in the water as it would be in a car, and would be considered a DUI.
In this case, the fact that Kevin O’Leary allowed someone else that was both unlicensed and had poor control of a boat to operate the vehicle is already bad. The fact that Gary Poltash tried to warn them with a horn, and that warning was ignored, or the response too late, resulting in two deaths, makes the case even more serious.
If you find yourself in a boating accident where you’re injured and it’s the fault of the parties in another boat, talk to an experienced boating accident lawyer here in Florida. Then take steps to make things right.