Thats what happens when you have things done as a private patient, it costs you heaps of money. If it is a critical accident where you need treatment go public and it doesn't cost you anything. 

first we need drink-driving laws for marine application, ie a limit of alcohol in your blood stream, which we don't yet have in WA for using a water craft, then we need to have more formal water ways policies and laws in place, only then will a third party system be able to function.

The aviation industry went through this before and hit more red tape than a German social welfare grant!

I don't think it would be as high as $300, as the claims in marine related accidents are much lower in number per user of the water ways to road accidents and 99% of the water users are more responsable in the usage compared to road users in my view.

JMO

I have public Liability as part of my boat insurance. You would be surprised how may boat owners have no insurance at all. We know this as this is one of the questions we ask when we complete a report after towing them in.

The best option is for boat owners to be required to have min third party insurance with PL insurance as ypou do with cars. To add it to the licence is not right. Those that have boat inurance would then be paying it twice.

Why is she not suing the owner of the boat (the father) who allowed him to take the boat.

Agree with MEJUTTY, if you choose to be private patient pay the cost. Public hospital care is just as good, I know from experience.

I think 3rd party should be in place.  I have boat insurance myself but if you don't one of your mates was permanantly injured in your boat ie paralysed and cant work for the rest of their life they would have a very hard decision to make whether to take legal action against you or suffer.

Not that i want to shell out more money for rego but it could be a small price to pay

Is stand alone 3rd party insurance available for a boat?

Drunk driver - Accident waiting to happen,

Unlit Nav aid- unlikely

Speed- obviously

The victim- Her responsabilty to ensure the driver wasnt drunk and was an experienced skipper.

So many wrongs there, so i dont think the majority should pay for others incompetance.

The moral of the story  (Idiots will suceed) its a tragedy that the young lady was with them.

dont have to be drunk to have an accident or speding

It forever frustrates me that we make laws and add to the responsibilty's of many to save the few that want to find someone else to blame.

I am waiting for the day that we, as a human race, can finally stand up and say - I screwed up, I ran over it, I was speeding, I was drunk etc, I have no-one to blame but myself, I wear the conseqences.

We are such in a hurry to blame everyone but ourselves and look for someone else to sue, charge, jail, blame when they may be partly to blame (as here with a drink boater) but we are also very much to blame for our own injuries (check it was safe, drunk yourself or bad decisions also, didnt' organise a way home etc).

persoanlly, I think owning anything without insurance is crazy but that also includes personal insurance for such an event for when someone else doens't have insurance themselves.

i pay around $700-800 a year for my FULL COMP club marine boat insurance.

There is no way they can apparently charge $300 for just third party.

IMO everything should have to be insured, yes she made mistake, the skipper made mistake but regardless of the facts.. I also dont see the point of owning a 50k boat with no insurance. yerh fair enough possibly in a tinny, but i jsut feel anything of value should be insured. Before i cop money is a factor etc etc in my eys if you cant afford insurance on your boat, you cant afford the boat. People we can ruin others peoples lives at our own mistakes or stupidity, im not taking the girls side just expressing how i feel on the situation of boat insurances.

its worth having the insurance just for the chance of theft, let alone the other benefits.  Anyone who is into ski/wake/biscuit would be mad not to have the extra protection on an insurance policy.

Just on the weekend I saw a boat fall off a trailer at the ramp because the winch cable snapped, whether its mechanical or human error lots of stuff can go wrong its worth having peace of mind.

As for the 3rd party its only a ass covering thing but it might be your ass one day

"I heard on the radio this morning a push by the victim of a boating accident back in 2007 for the state govenment to include third party insurance cover in boat license fees. That would raise the cost of licensing a boat by at least $250 - $300 per year.

This girl was involved in a boating accident late at night with the driver of the boat being drunk and hitting an unlit navigation marker on the Canning river after a party. She ended up in a coma for 2 weeks and has had medical bills of over $300,000 along with the lasting impact on her life. Unlike if this was a motor vehicle accident she has no insurance to claim against and could only take legal action against the driver of the boat whom she said that she only met that night when offered a lift home with friends. She claimed that she had not seen him at all that night at the party and was not awhare that he was drunk. She is unable to pursue legal action against him as it has been deemed that he has no assets. The boat was owned by his father. No form of compensation has been offered by the family or driver to the girl to help with medical bills."

The skipper is the son of a prominent Perth Cardiologist and a State Member of Parliament. She took the father as the boat owner and son as skipper to court for $500,000 but had to drop the case, then made a personal plea to the family for compensation, which has been refused.  The girl knew the skipper, went to school with him.  At the time of the crash I think there were 5 people on board who had just returned from dropping a number of people off at applecross jetty (Overloaded boat?).  Upon returning under the bridge and accelerating beyond 10 knots he collided with the unlit marker.  Everyone on board was injured to some extent, the girl made contact with the console and windows and suffered spinal and internal injuries.

After the crash the skipper visited the girl plenty of times and was quite apologetic about the incident, after a few weeks her lawyer caught wind of it and she cut off contact with the skipper as it could look bad for the upcomming case.  As to the son having no assets, while that may be the case, I believe that he has been on a seven week holiday to France several other jaunts.

Pretty sad state of affairs for all involved I believe.

 If the driver of a car is drunk my understanding is insurance is void. If these guys were drunk would an insurance company pay?

Maybe the girl is on a hiding to nothing?

Cheers

David

beyond 35 more like it.

Good point whitefin. I suppose your not drunk unless proven with a breathalyser, not sure if he was. Moral of the story learn by others mistakes

The skipper is the son of a prominent Perth Cardiologist and "his mother" a State Member of Parliament. He the skipper was found guilty and had to do 180 hrs of community service. Sounds like a "who you know" sentance. I worked here for a business that was registered "XXXX Holdings" X not being the name but I have to be careful. The business, home, vehicles the millions all owned by "XXXX Holdings" they were worth nothing, so they couldn't be sued and loose it all. Who was XXX   --- the family dog.

If I was the skipper and had an accident, I would do all I could to help those effected by the incident, looking at who they were and believe me those medical types earn dissgracfully high bucks, it speaks for its self.

The story is on the net.

 Here if you get bowled over by a car you can claim compensation. Same driver, same circumstance but on a bicycle/pram/skateboard etc you'll get jack+++t.

In NZ and some other places you have an Accident Compensation Commission. It does not matter if you are hurt at work, driving, riding a bike, diving etc so long as you arent committing a serious crime, you are entitled to medical and 75% wages compensation just the same. Hence the proliferation of Adventure Sports in NZ. Even if its your fault.

Every wage earner pays a levy and every citizen/permanent resident is covered by it. None of this Workers Comp crap (PI letting your tyres down and hiding in the bushes to film etc) and money cut off after 2 years whether you are better or not.

I'm just going to throw another log on the fire here. What about the unlit marker?? You woulkd think in this day and age they could all have some sort of solar lighting. I was on the river last summer coming back from matilda bay to south perth and there are quite a few unlit port and starboard markers. I also had a flotilla of unlit boats behind me following me back to the ramp (people I didn't know). I totaly agree this bloke is a goose but it's just something else to think about.

It will be one of those not enough money in the budget things so the repair work is backing up. The reduced speed limit at night is there for a reason though. Had they hit it at 5 knots or whatever the nightie speed limit is then there probably wouldn't have been as severe injuries