Even Drones Can Be Dangerous
Brian O Sutter
Personal Injury
To some people in Florida, a drone is a strange and vaguely disturbing new piece of technology that feels invasive when they see them flying through the air. To others, the drone is just another convenience of 21st century life that can do everything from make a real estate promotional video for a home feel more glamorous to filming sporting activities in new and innovative ways.Drones are just a part of our modern life now, and they are going to continue to become more widespread in use. A few years from now, it may not be all that unusual to accept home deliveries of everything from pizza to the latest purchase from Amazon via a drone flying directly to our homes.
However, as with any new technology, drones are still slowly integrating into the fabric of our everyday lives, and that means that there are going to be things to work. One of the things that many people are still wrestling with is the possibility of injury through the actions of a drone operator, and whether a personal injury case is then the right course of action.
Danger & Surveillance
At its root, a drone is essentially a remote control car that can fly and hover. What was once highly classified military reconnaissance technology can now be purchased by anyone either in a store, or online. Drones aren’t especially complicated to operate, especially newer drones with better controls and stabilization. But the thing that hasn’t changed is that, under the right circumstances, a drone can cause some serious injury.
The drone itself uses a series of small rotors that allow the device to both hover like a helicopter or move forwards at high speeds like an air craft. The propellers move at an extremely fast rate, and can injure a person should they make contact while in motion. Some drones have safe-guards in place to prevent such contact, while others do not. Even if a drone’s rotors don’t make contact with a person, should the drone itself collide with, crash into, or drop onto a person at a sufficient speed this is enough to cause an injury.
Another aspect of drone technology is that many drones are used for still photography and video recording. A drone is a much cheaper solution to expensive Hollywood “crane shots,” but that same mobility means that drones can easily be used for surveillance or spying purposes, one of their original military functions.
All of this means that while drones can be fun, convenient, or even very useful to some professionals, there’s also an element of risk to this technology.
Accidents Happen
Anyone today can buy and/or use a drone, even children. All it takes is one careless user and a drone can come crashing down on someone, or invade someone’s privacy in their yard or home. Of course, the issue here is, as with an automobile, when an accident happens that means that someone else was operating the hardware.
If you find yourself injured by a drone, in addition to looking after your own safety, try to recover the drone itself if possible. US law now requires that all drones be registered when they are purchased by a user, and a registration number for that user must be present on the drone. So even if you don’t know where the operator of the drone may be, recovering the drone’s registration number means you can look up that number online.
In addition, if the drone was recording at the time, that video recording may also provide evidence in defining exactly how the accident and negligence occurred. All of this can be critical information in a personal injury case if you’re trying to make the drone operator accountable for what happened.