A boating accident in Fredericksburg, Virginia on July 2 killed a man and injured two children.
According to Virginia news outlets, a 53-year-old man died July 2 when he was ejected from a boat on Lake Anna that swerved to avoid a boat that was headed in its direction. Another person in the boat was ejected as well but was not hurt.
The boat that swerved then ran over the tow line of another boat that was pulling two minors in tubes. Those children were hurt but not seriously.
According to a preliminary accident report from the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, alcohol was involved in the deadly boat accident.
Charges are pending against the driver of the first boat.
Our View
Approximately 50% of boating accidents involve alcohol. This fact should be enough for boaters to not bring alcohol on board a boat. At the very least, no one driving a boat should consume alcohol at any time as it can lead to impaired judgment, reduced coordination, and more accidents.
Operating a boat while drunk is a federal offense, and you can be put in jail for this crime even if no one is injured. But if someone is killed, you can do several years in prison.
Our drunk driving attorneys in Virginia would like to remind all boaters and drivers in Virginia that driving a boat while intoxicated is very dangerous and can lead to serious accidents, and sometimes death.
Another consequence of a drunk driving accident for the convicted drunk driver in Virginia is that you can be sued in civil court. You can be sued for personal injury and also for wrongful death in a case where the victim dies.
Our personal injury and wrongful death attorneys have helped past clients to win financial damages for their injuries sustained in a drunk driving crash. One of our past clients was a Norfolk engineer who was walking on a sidewalk and was hit by a drunk driver.
He was not killed, but he suffered grievous injuries to his lower leg. Because he was just in the wrong place at the wrong time, our client had to have four surgeries on his lower leg. He underwent a great deal of pain and suffering and had to lose time from work. We were pleased that we were able to settle the case for $100,000 in damages.
