Summer on the Water: Boating and Lake Injuries at Ohio's Lakes and Rivers

Published June 11, 2019 · Injury Law Basics

For a lot of families in the Miami Valley, summer means the water: a pontoon on Caesar Creek, a weekend at Indian Lake or Grand Lake St. Marys, a kayak or tube on the Great Miami. Nearly every one of those days ends with sunburn and nothing worse. But when something goes wrong on the water, it tends to go badly wrong. A swimmer is struck by a propeller. A tube rider is whipped into a dock. A passenger is thrown when the operator takes a wake too fast.

Two summers ago I wrote an overview of boating and ATV injuries and the basic rules boat operators must follow. This post focuses on the people who get hurt around the boat rather than driving it, and on a question that comes up again and again in these cases: when someone borrowed the boat, whose insurance pays?

Swimmers, tubers, and skiers

The people most exposed on a busy lake are the ones in the water. A boat operator owes everyone on and in the water the duty to operate with reasonable care, which means a proper lookout, a safe speed for the conditions and the crowd, and a safe distance from swimmers, swim areas, docks, and other boats.

Ohio adds specific rules for towing. Under R.C. 1547.15, when a boat tows someone on water skis, a surfboard, or a similar device, there must be an observer aboard, at least ten years old, whose job is to watch the person being towed continuously, while the operator watches the traffic ahead. A tube rider who is slung into another boat or a dock because no one was watching, or because the driver was looking backward instead of ahead, has a strong negligence claim.

Ohio's boating-under-the-influence law, R.C. 1547.11, applies not only to the person driving the boat but also to someone manipulating water skis or a similar towed device. Alcohol is part of many lake days, and an impaired operator is one of the most common reasons a summer outing turns into a hospital stay.

Passengers

Passengers are hurt when an operator turns too sharply, hits a wake or a wave at speed, runs aground, or collides with another boat. A passenger has the same right to recover against a careless operator that a car passenger has against a careless driver, even when the operator is a friend or relative. Claims like that are usually paid by insurance, not out of the operator's pocket, and that brings us to the most important practical question.

The borrowed-boat problem: whose insurance applies?

Boats are borrowed constantly. A brother-in-law lends his pontoon for the weekend. A neighbor lets a teenager take out the jet ski. The lake house comes with a boat in the boathouse. When someone is hurt, the coverage questions can be complicated:

• The owner's boat policy. Many watercraft policies cover people who operate the boat with the owner's permission, much as auto policies do. Whether this particular policy does, and how much it pays, depends on its wording.
• The owner's homeowner's policy. Some smaller boats are covered only under a homeowner's policy, and those policies often limit or exclude watercraft based on size, horsepower, or whether the boat is owned or rented. Do not assume the boat carries liability insurance at all until the policies are reviewed.
• The operator's own coverage. The person who borrowed the boat may have a homeowner's or renter's policy that covers his liability for operating a non-owned watercraft.
• Umbrella policies. An umbrella policy owned by the boat owner or the operator can provide coverage well above the primary limits. I explained why umbrella coverage matters in an earlier post on finding every available dollar.

There is also a trap many people do not expect. The uninsured motorist coverage on your auto policy usually will not help if the boat operator who hurt you has no insurance. For uninsured and underinsured motorist purposes, R.C. 3937.18(A) defines "motor vehicle" to exclude watercraft unless your policy says otherwise. That is one more reason to identify every policy that might apply early. Our UM/UIM page explains how that coverage works on the road.

Rentals, marinas, liveries, and docks

Businesses on the water owe their customers the duty of reasonable care. A rental operation that hands a powerful boat or personal watercraft to an inexperienced renter without instruction, a canoe or kayak livery that sends paddlers onto a river at dangerous water levels, or a marina with a rotted dock or exposed wiring near the water may share responsibility for an injury. Property owners with swim areas, docks, and lake access have similar duties to keep their premises reasonably safe. These claims can be affected by signed rental agreements and waivers, which need to be read carefully.

What the operator must do after a collision

Ohio law imposes duties on a boat operator after a crash. R.C. 1547.10 requires an operator who knows of a collision to stop, to the extent that it is safe and practical, and give his name, address, and the vessel's registration number. R.C. 1547.59 requires the operator to render reasonable assistance to people affected by the collision and, when someone is killed, injured seriously enough to need treatment beyond first aid, or property damage exceeds $500, to file a written report with the Ohio Department of Natural Resources' Division of Parks and Watercraft.

That report, together with any investigation by a state watercraft officer, sheriff's deputy, or park officer, is often the starting point for proving how the crash happened.

What to document after a water injury

Evidence on a lake disappears even faster than on a road. If you or someone with you can do it safely:

1. Get the operator's name, address, and phone number, and the boat's registration number (the numbers on the bow) and name.
2. Photograph the boat, including any damage, the propeller, and the area where the injury happened.
3. Identify the owner if the operator is not the owner, and ask whose boat it is in so many words.
4. Get names of witnesses, including people on shore, on docks, and in other boats.
5. Ask whether officers responded and which agency, so the report can be obtained.
6. Write down the conditions: time, weather, wind, crowding, whether alcohol was present, and who was serving as the observer if anyone was being towed.

What this means for you

A serious lake or river injury is often treated as an unfortunate accident with no one to blame and no insurance to pay. That is frequently wrong. Operators, owners, rental businesses, and marinas all have duties, and there may be several policies that apply, including policies owned by someone other than the person driving. If the worst happened and a family member died, our wrongful death page explains who can bring the claim. More about the cases we handle is on our personal injury page.