Man charged in deadly boat crash last summer hopes to put a cap on how much he can be sued
Universal Hub is reporting that the South Boston (Seaport) man involved in the deadly crash off of Castle Island last summer is asking a federal judge to limit how much he would have to pay out for any lawsuits because he was not at fault because he couldn’t see the 40-foot marker he collided with.
On Friday, Ryan Denver invoked a federal law dating to 1851 meant to deal with pirates and bad storms. Basically the law limits the amount a person can sue a ship owner for to the value of the ship itself. The owner of said ship, however, does have to prove that the crash was beyond his/her control.
You can read more about this “interesting” legal move here.
Denver still faces criminal charges including involuntary manslaughter, three counts of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon causing serious bodily injury and two counts of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, for the collision that caused the death of Jeanica Julce.
Maureen Dahill is the editor of Caught in Southie and a lifelong resident of South Boston sometimes mistaken for a yuppie. Co-host of Caught Up, storyteller, lover of red wine and binge watching TV series. Mrs. Peter G. Follow her @MaureenCaught.
This is a tragic event and my heart go out to all of the victims. I make no judgment on the capability or responsibility of the driver in this case or his recklessness or prudent driving under the conditions that night but I will say this: That day marker 5 that he ran into is almost impossible and sometimes completely impossible to see even in mid afternoon on a sunny day when you know the location of it and you’re actively looking for it. It probably goes without saying that you probably shouldn’t be out on the water at 3am if you don’t know the route by heart (or maybe even at all) but if this guy was sober as it seems he was, was driving a reasonable speed, which seems to be undetermined at this time, knew his route, and was acting safely, I can totally see not seeing that marker and still hitting it. IF all of that is true, the charges seem excessive to me, but there’s a lot of if’s in there. At any rate, the coast guard really needs to make some improvements at that marker for pleasure boaters lower to the ground. (for those of you who don’t know the marker, it’s literally 4 metal posts sticking out of the ground that go up 35 feet and on top of that there is a marker and light, which is meant for very large ships entering the harbor on the shipping lane. From the perspective of someone a few feet off the water in a pleasure boat–I’m telling you, it’s nearly impossible to see in daylight when searching for it. On my boat we even gave the marker a name and we make it a point to find it and go the far way around it before making the turn into or out of the harbor….it’s that difficult) Again, I’m not excusing the driver’s actions here because it was his responsibility to know that marker was there and to avoid it. My only point is, it’s nearly impossible to see and something should be done about that so that this doesn’t happen again.