The Haggard Law Firm’s Pedro Echarte and Michael Haggard have settled a wrongful death boating crash case for a total of $3.75 million. Per terms of the confidential settlement, the names of the parties involved are confidential
The victim was swimming off of a public beach when he was hit by a passing boater. The catastrophically injured swimmer was airlifted to a hospital but died a few hours after his arrival.
Prior to any lawsuit being filed, the case settled against the boater for $500,000.00, which was the entirety of his available insurance policy limits. A lawsuit was then filed against a watersports company that operated a beachfront watersports rental company near the location of the collision. The watersports company rented wave runners and paddleboards and also offered other excursions like parasailing and banana boating. The case against the watersports rental company settled for $3,250,000.00
Although the boater that struck the decedent was not affiliated with the watersports company, the Haggard Law Firm argued that the watersports company failed to set its buoys a safe distance from shore, which drew the passing boater closer to shore and the public swim area than he otherwise would have been traveling at such a high rate of speed.
The evidence established that the watersports company used its buoys to form a “vessel corridor” for its vessels, including its waverunner rental customers, to travel between when coming to and from the beach. The two buoys, which were set equidistant from the shoreline, were also used to demarcate the distance from shore the waverunner rental customers needed to be before they could travel above idle speed.
Echarte and Haggard were able to show, using the boater’s GPS data from the date of the incident, that the buoys (which were near where the collision occurred) were closer to shore than local ordinances permitted boaters to travel above idle speed. Haggard Law’s attorneys contended that the presence of the buoys coupled with the fact that the watersports company’s customers routinely accelerated as they passed the buoys confused the boater and drew him closer to shore than he otherwise would have been and into the public swim area where the decedent was swimming.
The decedent’s surviving spouse was at the beach with him and saw the collision occur.
