[ApS]

Originally Posted by Mee-n-Mac

"...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"..."

There's a Coast Guard category titled "Operator Error" as primary cause: That suggests that neither "BWI" nor "No Proper Lookout" would appear as primary cause.

Originally Posted by Mee-n-Mac

"...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..."

In the Eagle Island case, a sobriety test of all three boaters should be done. The courtroom defense "theory" could include a question of which boater was at the helm at the time of the wreck.

As a teen, and less accustomed to alcohol's effects, he may end up being found at less than the legal-limit anyway; alternatively, he could claim being sober prior to the wreck and drank to >.08 BAC afterwards.

A defense "theory" that sounds responsible would be, "Just when we hit, we were arguing which of us was the designated driver".

In the Congressman's case there should have been a "field-sobriety" test; however, as is the case with plea-deals, that too could disappear. As we have seen, oral testimony in a BWI criminal case can be readily dismissed.

Originally Posted by Mee-n-Mac

"...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..."

Law enforcement personnel should be held to a higher standard -- under the law.

As to "leniency", the accused should hire Roy Black, Esq.—grandson of the US Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black: Roy recently got "leniency" for a media personality in a famous doctor-shopping case. Our system assures that consequences can be "lenient" under the right circumstances.

Originally Posted by Mee-n-Mac

"...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. ..."

Among the variables, we know these:
1) the boat's pathway from physical evidence,
2) the high approximate speed from the Mount's captain, a "lay-expert",
3) the lake level at the time, which was at a high-extreme.

I'd volunteer too, and would insist that all the variables need to be met; however, I doubt the State will foot the bill for my beverages!

BTW: Being at such a high level could have saved these boaters' very lives! Had this occurred late in the season, they could have hit the granite-rock wall that Winnipesaukee's shorefront becomes at that time.