Decision on Coomera River crash in 2002

[ozscott]

G'day all,

To all those interested in boating rules, mishaps and boating accidents (and for the bush lawyer) you might find this of interest:

http://archive.sclqld.org.au/qjudgment/2010/QSC10-039.pdf

I posted up on this forum a few years ago another decision of the Supreme Court involving a crash at night on the Nerang Rigney v Browne and Anor [2004] QSC 265 (you can see that here - http://archive.sclqld.org.au/qjudgment/2004/QSC04-265.pdf (http://archive.sclqld.org.au/qjudgment/2004/QSC04-265.pdf%29). This latest one I recall glancing at when it was published but then forgot about it. Its only a few months out of date though. Happy reading.

Cheers

[Richo1]

Thanks for that interesting reading!

Simple boating rules that not many people seem to know or understand;
Rule 2 Responsibility
Rule 5 Lookout
Rule 6 Safe Speed
Rule 7 Risk of collision
Rule 8 Action to avoid collision
Rule 14 Head on situation
If in doubt STOP!!!!!
Cheers,

Richo

[oldboot]

There is a great mass of verbage in that judgement.... but it is well worth taking the time to plough thru it...just to see how complicatedsuch matteres become...and for how long they can hang arround to come back and bite you.

if you read nothing else..have a look at the negligence summaries.

cheers

[ozscott]

There is a great mass of verbage in that judgement.... but it is well worth taking the time to plough thru it...just to see how complicatedsuch matteres become...and for how long they can hang arround to come back and bite you.

if you read nothing else..have a look at the negligence summaries.

cheers

Its that mass of verbage that I have to wade through regularly and often add to...fun hey!

Cheers

[Jeremy]

Interesting that one fellow was found to have 35% liability just because he didn't slow down because some fool was flying down the river on the wrong side of the channel. Yes he probably should have slowed to 15 knots. There was no way he could have gone to the other side of the channel either, his liability would just have increased.

I have had a number of close missed due to fools who don't know which side of the channel to pass on. Make an obvious correction to starboard and they follow!!! Hard to know what to do.

Richo1, simple rules eh. You reckon you would stop and become a sitting duck to a 35' bayliner in a narrow channel who may not have seen you? Good luck to you.

[oldboot]

Yeh Scott mate...I have come to realise that there are those who cope well with gratuitous verbage and those that don't..........


As for driving on the correct side of the channel...ther are heaps that don't know which side of the channel to drive on.

I was running out of the leads at wello one day....as usuall I was keeping to the rught side of the channel.......this bloke came down the midddel of the channel comming in......so I made an obvious deviation to Starboard and straightened up.....the bloke came past me shaking his fist..shouting somthing like "keep left you idiot".

There are so many people who simply do not know the rules.....and this was a very big mistake on the part of Mr smith, he assumed the other bloke knew what he was doing.

cheers

[Richo1]

Jeremy,
In that situation I would have taken what ever action was required to avoid being run over, even if it meant going outside the rules! I wasn't really applying "Stop" in that case senario. So many incidents are cause by both parties belting along neither sure of what to do, instead of stopping or slowing down they just keep going until the collision! Proper lookout and a safe speed would have avoided that incident!

[Smithy]

Scott,

can you put up a link to the Nerang River one?

Browny recently passed away. R.I.P. I always wondered how that one came out in the wash.

[ozscott]

I have stuck it in the original post now Smithy.

Cheers

[Smithy]

Thanks. Just needs some editing to get rid of the close brackets at the end but it works if you cotton onto that.

[ozscott]

Done - Cheers mate

[Jarrah Jack]

Upon reading some of the verbage it reinforces to me that if you are involved in an accident its best to write everything down ASAP and gather other evidence if you can. I took a pic of an accident once and the court loved it and it did help my case a lot.So drawings on a chart, google earth etc could be used, but only if they helped your case I guess.

[ozscott]

Can I add this from 20 + years in litigation - the best thing you can do is make a detailed note in handwriting on your diary as soon as you can (if possible immediately). Also if talking to police make sure you are careful in what you say and if you dont know distances etc tell them and dont guess at it. Photos are good too. With today's phones photos of positions of vehicles/boats immediately after the collision is a good thing to do.

Cheers