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Originally Posted by Acres per Second
Chances are excellent that a driver whose car "tumbled into an embankment" will at least be recorded statistically as an accident. Just a few days earlier when the lake level was at its extreme height, this boat could have "gotten air" all the way to a resident's bedroom!
I wouldn't be so dismissive of this event. Will a boat that drove up to somebody's house be statistically recorded as something other than "Collision with Fixed Object", or "No Proper Lookout"?
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While it may well get recorded as "Collision with Fixed Object" or "Grounding" in the USCG stats, I think it likely it's primary cause will be recorded as "BUI" (properly "Alcohol Use") rather than "No Proper Lookout".
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Originally Posted by Acres per Second
Seen the headlines?
We now have "The Ambien®-Defense", and it's been used by a Congressman in Washington: The words "appears intoxicated" appear on the police report—two other charges were pled down and dismissed!
Volunteered testimony regarding one's own prescribed medicine could spell the end of BWI c-o-n-v-i-c-t-i-o-n-s. I fear that it's not a new Defense tactic: Insurance will pay-up—or else.
IMHO, better that more charges are added:
Without the BWI, and sober or not, it can be calculated at what velocity Eagle Island was "tagged". Given those Ambien® headlines, any and all additional charges could—and ultimately should—be added.
This is still another Coast Guard statistic...waiting to be missed...from Lake Winnipesaukee.
IMHO.
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The Ambien defense has been claimed before along with the Ritalin defense and others. I'm not sure how they make out as a general rule. The question in Kennedy's case is whether he really was drinking or not, drunk or not (he claimed he wasn't). I don't think any sobriety tests were done (and there probably should have been) but that wasn't the case in this (boating) case was it. Claiming Ambien made him
appear as if drunk isn't going to help if there's evidence to the contrary. Moreover Kennedy's case shows that driving under the influence of medications (vs alcohol) isn't going to get you off w/o consequences. That his consequences are light compared to what you or I might have gotten in similar circumstances is another question, not related in any way I can see, to this crash. Depending on the kid's history he may get some leniency or maybe he won't. Being a NH deputy county attorney specializing in prosecuting DUI cases didn't help
Wayne Coull. As for the insurance paying up, well they didn't in a somewhat (in)famous case I think you've heard of.
http://www.insurancejournal.com/news...2/21/48902.htm
As for estimating the boat's speed that night ... might be hard to do given all the variables involved. But if you think it'll help and if the owners are willing, I volunteer to test crash the boat over and over again to determine a range of potential speeds that night.
