Gratton Family to File Wrongful Death Lawsuit Against Super Boat International
12-12-2011, 06:58 PM
#152
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All this is after the fact! Why wasn’t the guy extracted from the Boat a lot quicker? Damn cutting a couple harness straps takes seconds while giving him some very badly needed air OR am I missing something? The Rescue needs Looked at!!
12-12-2011, 07:04 PM
#153
Platinum Member
Platinum Member
My take is that the game would be stopped suspended until the player was removed from the playing field. If they didn't players would be running all around the injured player disrupting the medical personnel.
Even in the case of a serious injury like a potential paralysis in the pro's at least they always resume playing.
12-12-2011, 07:59 PM
#155
Charter Member #40
Charter Member
12-12-2011, 07:59 PM
#156
Charter Member
Charter Member
That is a great point. when i watched the Big thunder video i was wondering why they did not stop the race.
They should think about adding so sort of caution so when the boats enter a area where an incident happen they have to slow down to a certain speed. That might be more confusing but should at least be looked at as an alternative.
Do other orgs stop the race when there is an accident?
They should think about adding so sort of caution so when the boats enter a area where an incident happen they have to slow down to a certain speed. That might be more confusing but should at least be looked at as an alternative.
Do other orgs stop the race when there is an accident?
12-13-2011, 05:50 AM
#157
Registered
As one of the two guys that put on Smoke On The Water and were included in the lawsuit after the death of two men at our event in 2005 I feel i have a bit more insight in order to comment on this.
First off it is Interesting that so many did not see this one coming, ( a lawsuit after the accident) and did not see it coming from the aforementioned (oh oh I used a lawyer word) attorney. I was told by the marine patrol here that when we had the two deaths during Smoke On The Water that Mr. Alwise had called local authorities immediately to enquire into the accident. This was told to me by one of the detectives he had talked to soon after. Ultimately we were sucked into the almost 10 million dollar lawsuit by a different attorney but the lessons are the same.
Accidents = Lawyers swirling around to feed off the pain of the family's, suits are about money not about change, helpful change is not coming from the attorneys and the victims after an accident.
Waivers are worth NOTHING when it comes to lawsuits. We had everyone sign waivers that had paid to run in the SOPTW event yet it did not stop us from being included in the lawsuit. One of the two guys that perished in our event, had participated in SOTW two years in a row in his friends Outer Limits and owned his own 28 Donzi (he was a passenger in a different OL when it rolled over and he died) He knew the risks and yet the family was up in arms when he died. I asked the attorneys more than once who was going to hold the family responsible for letting their loved ones go to an event of this type they should be held accountable for letting their loved ones participate if they are not going to live with the ramifications. (sounds cold but true) Waivers were useless and ignored by suing attorneys. You must pay to defend yourself regardless if you have already paid to protect yourself.
Lawsuits of this type are not about bringing change, they are about bringing wealth. If it was about change, the suit would be totally about having verbiage written to protect people in the future not about monetary solutions and the lawyer would sue free of charge.
Most of these suits are not about an "awarded verdict" they are about "Settlements" As I sat through mediation and through depositions for the accident at SOTW it became evident that we were never going to trial that all parties involved were going to come up with a settlement and we never saw the doors of a courtroom (in the end the families received Millions in SETTLEMENT money)
We as promoters are going to have to work together to make changes at our events. The family's that received MILLIONS from our event, and the attorneys that I assume received a ton of money. Have never returned to offshore boating to help better it . They got their cash and disappeared.
This all comes down to integrity and morals in my opinion. When Kevin Sellers died at a Cumberland poker run a year or so after helping us pull out one of the bodies at SOTW, his family did NOT SUE, as they were fully aware that Kevin had passed away doing what he loved and that it was Kevin's choice to participate in the event. the deaths at SOTW and at Cumberland as well as the event that caused the death of Myra Gibson and 5 others (Flash Gordon Boat) . Has helped to make some changes but change came from promoters working together NOT LAWYERS and suing family's
Do not misunderstand, I think that the safety procedures need to be looked at and modified so this never happens again but MONETARY Lawsuits does not fix the problem. Lessons learned does help us to be better prepared and to make change for the better
I have much more to respond on this but it early morning and I have work to get done i will add more later on. Now off to a meeting
First off it is Interesting that so many did not see this one coming, ( a lawsuit after the accident) and did not see it coming from the aforementioned (oh oh I used a lawyer word) attorney. I was told by the marine patrol here that when we had the two deaths during Smoke On The Water that Mr. Alwise had called local authorities immediately to enquire into the accident. This was told to me by one of the detectives he had talked to soon after. Ultimately we were sucked into the almost 10 million dollar lawsuit by a different attorney but the lessons are the same.
Accidents = Lawyers swirling around to feed off the pain of the family's, suits are about money not about change, helpful change is not coming from the attorneys and the victims after an accident.
Waivers are worth NOTHING when it comes to lawsuits. We had everyone sign waivers that had paid to run in the SOPTW event yet it did not stop us from being included in the lawsuit. One of the two guys that perished in our event, had participated in SOTW two years in a row in his friends Outer Limits and owned his own 28 Donzi (he was a passenger in a different OL when it rolled over and he died) He knew the risks and yet the family was up in arms when he died. I asked the attorneys more than once who was going to hold the family responsible for letting their loved ones go to an event of this type they should be held accountable for letting their loved ones participate if they are not going to live with the ramifications. (sounds cold but true) Waivers were useless and ignored by suing attorneys. You must pay to defend yourself regardless if you have already paid to protect yourself.
Lawsuits of this type are not about bringing change, they are about bringing wealth. If it was about change, the suit would be totally about having verbiage written to protect people in the future not about monetary solutions and the lawyer would sue free of charge.
Most of these suits are not about an "awarded verdict" they are about "Settlements" As I sat through mediation and through depositions for the accident at SOTW it became evident that we were never going to trial that all parties involved were going to come up with a settlement and we never saw the doors of a courtroom (in the end the families received Millions in SETTLEMENT money)
We as promoters are going to have to work together to make changes at our events. The family's that received MILLIONS from our event, and the attorneys that I assume received a ton of money. Have never returned to offshore boating to help better it . They got their cash and disappeared.
This all comes down to integrity and morals in my opinion. When Kevin Sellers died at a Cumberland poker run a year or so after helping us pull out one of the bodies at SOTW, his family did NOT SUE, as they were fully aware that Kevin had passed away doing what he loved and that it was Kevin's choice to participate in the event. the deaths at SOTW and at Cumberland as well as the event that caused the death of Myra Gibson and 5 others (Flash Gordon Boat) . Has helped to make some changes but change came from promoters working together NOT LAWYERS and suing family's
Do not misunderstand, I think that the safety procedures need to be looked at and modified so this never happens again but MONETARY Lawsuits does not fix the problem. Lessons learned does help us to be better prepared and to make change for the better
I have much more to respond on this but it early morning and I have work to get done i will add more later on. Now off to a meeting
Last edited by boatme; 12-13-2011 at 05:53 AM.
12-13-2011, 05:56 AM
#158
Registered
By the way I hope to remember to address the ramifications of these lawsuits on sponsorship money for these events in the future. You should have heard what our sponsors told us after the lawsuit started
12-13-2011, 06:36 AM
#160
Registered
As one of the two guys that put on Smoke On The Water and were included in the lawsuit after the death of two men at our event in 2005 I feel i have a bit more insight in order to comment on this.
First off it is Interesting that so many did not see this one coming, ( a lawsuit after the accident) and did not see it coming from the aforementioned (oh oh I used a lawyer word) attorney. I was told by the marine patrol here that when we had the two deaths during Smoke On The Water that Mr. Alwise had called local authorities immediately to enquire into the accident. This was told to me by one of the detectives he had talked to soon after. Ultimately we were sucked into the almost 10 million dollar lawsuit by a different attorney but the lessons are the same.
Accidents = Lawyers swirling around to feed off the pain of the family's, suits are about money not about change, helpful change is not coming from the attorneys and the victims after an accident.
Waivers are worth NOTHING when it comes to lawsuits. We had everyone sign waivers that had paid to run in the SOPTW event yet it did not stop us from being included in the lawsuit. One of the two guys that perished in our event, had participated in SOTW two years in a row in his friends Outer Limits and owned his own 28 Donzi (he was a passenger in a different OL when it rolled over and he died) He knew the risks and yet the family was up in arms when he died. I asked the attorneys more than once who was going to hold the family responsible for letting their loved ones go to an event of this type they should be held accountable for letting their loved ones participate if they are not going to live with the ramifications. (sounds cold but true) Waivers were useless and ignored by suing attorneys. You must pay to defend yourself regardless if you have already paid to protect yourself.
Lawsuits of this type are not about bringing change, they are about bringing wealth. If it was about change, the suit would be totally about having verbiage written to protect people in the future not about monetary solutions and the lawyer would sue free of charge.
Most of these suits are not about an "awarded verdict" they are about "Settlements" As I sat through mediation and through depositions for the accident at SOTW it became evident that we were never going to trial that all parties involved were going to come up with a settlement and we never saw the doors of a courtroom (in the end the families received Millions in SETTLEMENT money)
We as promoters are going to have to work together to make changes at our events. The family's that received MILLIONS from our event, and the attorneys that I assume received a ton of money. Have never returned to offshore boating to help better it . They got their cash and disappeared.
This all comes down to integrity and morals in my opinion. When Kevin Sellers died at a Cumberland poker run a year or so after helping us pull out one of the bodies at SOTW, his family did NOT SUE, as they were fully aware that Kevin had passed away doing what he loved and that it was Kevin's choice to participate in the event. the deaths at SOTW and at Cumberland as well as the event that caused the death of Myra Gibson and 5 others (Flash Gordon Boat) . Has helped to make some changes but change came from promoters working together NOT LAWYERS and suing family's
Do not misunderstand, I think that the safety procedures need to be looked at and modified so this never happens again but MONETARY Lawsuits does not fix the problem. Lessons learned does help us to be better prepared and to make change for the better
I have much more to respond on this but it early morning and I have work to get done i will add more later on. Now off to a meeting
First off it is Interesting that so many did not see this one coming, ( a lawsuit after the accident) and did not see it coming from the aforementioned (oh oh I used a lawyer word) attorney. I was told by the marine patrol here that when we had the two deaths during Smoke On The Water that Mr. Alwise had called local authorities immediately to enquire into the accident. This was told to me by one of the detectives he had talked to soon after. Ultimately we were sucked into the almost 10 million dollar lawsuit by a different attorney but the lessons are the same.
Accidents = Lawyers swirling around to feed off the pain of the family's, suits are about money not about change, helpful change is not coming from the attorneys and the victims after an accident.
Waivers are worth NOTHING when it comes to lawsuits. We had everyone sign waivers that had paid to run in the SOPTW event yet it did not stop us from being included in the lawsuit. One of the two guys that perished in our event, had participated in SOTW two years in a row in his friends Outer Limits and owned his own 28 Donzi (he was a passenger in a different OL when it rolled over and he died) He knew the risks and yet the family was up in arms when he died. I asked the attorneys more than once who was going to hold the family responsible for letting their loved ones go to an event of this type they should be held accountable for letting their loved ones participate if they are not going to live with the ramifications. (sounds cold but true) Waivers were useless and ignored by suing attorneys. You must pay to defend yourself regardless if you have already paid to protect yourself.
Lawsuits of this type are not about bringing change, they are about bringing wealth. If it was about change, the suit would be totally about having verbiage written to protect people in the future not about monetary solutions and the lawyer would sue free of charge.
Most of these suits are not about an "awarded verdict" they are about "Settlements" As I sat through mediation and through depositions for the accident at SOTW it became evident that we were never going to trial that all parties involved were going to come up with a settlement and we never saw the doors of a courtroom (in the end the families received Millions in SETTLEMENT money)
We as promoters are going to have to work together to make changes at our events. The family's that received MILLIONS from our event, and the attorneys that I assume received a ton of money. Have never returned to offshore boating to help better it . They got their cash and disappeared.
This all comes down to integrity and morals in my opinion. When Kevin Sellers died at a Cumberland poker run a year or so after helping us pull out one of the bodies at SOTW, his family did NOT SUE, as they were fully aware that Kevin had passed away doing what he loved and that it was Kevin's choice to participate in the event. the deaths at SOTW and at Cumberland as well as the event that caused the death of Myra Gibson and 5 others (Flash Gordon Boat) . Has helped to make some changes but change came from promoters working together NOT LAWYERS and suing family's
Do not misunderstand, I think that the safety procedures need to be looked at and modified so this never happens again but MONETARY Lawsuits does not fix the problem. Lessons learned does help us to be better prepared and to make change for the better
I have much more to respond on this but it early morning and I have work to get done i will add more later on. Now off to a meeting
Excellent post. Thank you. This will be one of the worst things to happen to offshore.
