!['Duck Tour boat beaching' by Iridescent (Own work) [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html), CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/) or CC-BY-SA-2.5-2.0-1.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5-2.0-1.0)], via Wikimedia Commons](http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Duck_Tour_boat_beaching.JPG "'Duck Tour boat beaching' by Iridescent (Own work) [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html), CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/) or CC-BY-SA-2.5-2.0-1.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5-2.0-1.0)], via Wikimedia Commons")
The parents of two students who died in a July 2010 boat accident settled their wrongful death lawsuit a few days into its trial in a Philadelphia federal court. The lawsuit included eighteen survivors from the accident, which occurred on the Delaware River when a city-owned barge collided with a tour boat. The plaintiffs had faced a possible cap on damages for their claims in the lawsuit based on federal maritime law. The parties reached a settlement at the urging of the judge.
The accident occurred in July 2010 on a stretch of the Delaware River in view of downtown Philadelphia. Thirty-seven passengers and crew were on board an amphibious duck boat, a vehicle that can drive on land and in water, commonly used for sightseeing tours. The duck boat had overheated due to a misplaced radiator cap. In the 103-degree heat, the duck boat’s captain reportedly thought the steam off the engine was fire. The captain dropped anchor immediately, leaving the boat stranded in a busy channel.
At the same time, an eighty-yard barge pushed by a tug was coming through the channel.The tugboat captain reportedly had a family emergency and was busy on his cellphone. He moved to a part of the tugboat where he could not see the river. He therefore failed to see the barge bearing down on the duck boat. The barge collided with the duck boat, causing it to capsize. Two passengers, 16 year-old Dora Schwendtner and 20 year-old Szabolcs Prem, both students from Hungary, died in the collision. Twenty-six passengers were injured. The tugboat captain is now serving a one-year prison sentence for involuntary manslaughter.
]]> The parents of Schwendtner and Prem, along with eighteen survivors, sued K-Sea Transportation, which operated the tugboat; Ride the Ducks, which ran the tour boat; and the city of Philadelphia, which owned the barge. The lawsuit claimed that K-Sea’s employees were negligent in failing to prevent or avoid the collision. It claimed that Ride the Ducks was negligent for failing to advise passengers to put on life preservers until just before the collision, for failing to equip the boat with an emergency air horn or radio, and for a poor boat design that allegedly trapped both victims underwater.The plaintiffs originally filed their lawsuit in Pennsylvania state court, but the defendants removed it to federal court. The defendants claimed that federal maritime law imposed strict limits on their liability, based solely on the value of their vessels. Ride the Ducks claimed that their liability could not exceed $150,000, and K-Sea claimed their maximum liability was $1.5 million.
The trial began on Monday, May 7, 2012. Schwendtner and Prem’s parents came from Hungary to attend the trial. Plaintiffs’ attorneys showed a video of the collision, in which the barge ran over the duck boat. Schwendter appears in the video, tossing a life jacket to someone who had jumped from the boat, just before the two vessels collided. By Tuesday, the judge asked attorneys to attempt a settlement. On Wednesday, they announced a $17 million settlement. Schwendtner and Prem’s families will receive $15 million, and the eighteen survivors in the suit will split $2 million.
The Maryland accident injury lawyers at Lebowitz & Mzhen are skilled at pursuing justice for people injured in boating accidents in Maryland waters. Contact us today online or at (800) 654-1949 for a free and confidential consultation.
More Blog Posts:
Maryland Lawsuit Seeks to Hold Bar Liable for Intoxicated Boating Accident, Maryland Accident Law Blog, September 8, 2011
11 Maryland Boating Accident Deaths Reported to Date for 2011, Maryland Accident Law Blog, June 15, 2011
Maryland Boating Accident: Teenager Seriously Hurt While Trying to Dock a Personal Watercraft, Maryland Accident Law Blog, June 7, 2009
Photo credit: 'Duck Tour boat beaching' by Iridescent (Own work) [GFDL, CC-BY-SA-3.0 or CC-BY-SA-2.5-2.0-1.0], via Wikimedia Commons.
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A study conducted by researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine and the University of Maryland Medical Center has found that the number of pedestrians killed or injured in traffic accidents while wearing headphones tripled over a six-year period beginning in 2004. The researchers examined records of accident reports maintained by online news archives like Google and Westlaw, as well as data obtained from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) and the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System (NEISS). The study was published in the January 16, 2012 online edition of the medical journal Injury Prevention.
A tragic 2004 car crash has led to calls for federal legislation and regulation of the rental car industry. Two sisters, Raechel and Jacqueline Houck, 24 and 20 years of age respectively, rented a PT Cruiser from an Enterprise Rent-A-Car in Capitola, California. The car was under recall at the time because of a problem with its power-steering, but the rental company had not performed any repairs. Since the issuance of the recall, it had reportedly rented the car to three other people before the Houcks. The power-steering fluid began to leak while they were driving, and it caught fire. This caused them to lose control of the car. Their car collided with a semi trailer, killing both of them. Enterprise admitted to liability, and a jury awarded $15 million in damages to the Houcks’ mother, Cally Houck, two years ago.
A Baltimore girl’s $2 million jury verdict for toxic exposure to lead paint suffered a setback last month, when the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the insurance company for the realty company that owned the house where she lived would only be obligated to pay forty percent of the total judgment. She still stands to receive a substantial sum of money, but the court’s ruling cuts the amount she may realistically expect to collect.
A Maryland teenager died the evening of Saturday, February 18, 2012, when he fell from a moving car and was struck by another vehicle. Michael Truluck, age 13, had allegedly consumed an energy drink containing alcohol earlier in the evening with friends. He was reportedly feeling sick, and his friends said he had vomited twice when his mother’s fiance came to pick him up. During the ride home, he reportedly removed his seat belt and opened the car door, while the car was in motion, in order to vomit again. He fell out and was struck by a Ford Explorer. Police have said they will not file charges against the driver of the Explorer.
Police went to the Greenbelt, Maryland home of Lynda Sheppard on the morning of May 26, 2010 with an arrest warrant for her son, Michael Mang. Sheppard had a protection order against her 41 year-old son and had requested a warrant for his arrest, saying he had threatened and assaulted her. Police arrested Mang, and hours later he was dead.
A former Pennsylvania road worker who was paralyzed by a drunk driver as he directed traffic has reached a workers’ compensation settlement agreement for $3 million. This is believed to be one of the largest settlements in the U.S. In getting to this point, he has also gone through a Dram Shop Act lawsuit and a bad faith insurance claim.
An article in a recent issue of General Surgery News, a trade publication for surgeries, examines the impact of medical malpractice litigation on general surgeons and several specialty areas of surgery. The article looks at recent statistics and discusses the merits of fighting malpractice lawsuits versus settling them quickly. It concludes that doctors are usually better off, in the long run, fighting lawsuits. The analysis tends not to be favorable towards medical malpractice plaintiffs and their attorneys, but it does offer a good glimpse of how surgeons might approach a malpractice claim.
A former Massachusetts dentist, Michael Clair, pleaded guilty to Medicaid fraud and a number of other charges stemming from allegations that he used paper clips while performing root canals instead of the stainless steel posts normally used. He will serve one year in jail. Medicaid reportedly suspended the 53 year-old dentist in 2002, but he continued to file claims under different names belonging to other dentists in his practice until 2005. Massachusetts suspended Clair’s dentistry license in 2006, and he is reportedly not currently licensed to practice in any state. He has resided in Maryland for several years.