Thread: Pay Back Time?
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Old 11-18-2012, 06:50 PM   #237
Marin
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Join Date: Oct 2007
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[QUOTE=Edelweiss;113598]
Quote:
Originally Posted by bfloyd4445 View Post

There is another very similar case going on in Skagit County right now. In this tort the 911 caller was ultimately killed by his attacker before the police arrived, it will no doubt result in a significant settlement.

Larry B,
Unless there was an error in communication or a deliberate delay in the police response, I don't see how the police or county could be held liable if an attacker kills or injures his victim before the police get there after being called.

That would be like holding Vessel Assist liable because your boat went on the rocks because it took the assistance vessel (or the USCG for that matter) x-amount of time for them to physically get to your location after they got your mayday.

Assistance boats and police cars can only go so fast and if it takes them longer to get to your location than it takes for your boat to go on the rocks (or your attacker to kill you) then your boat's going to go on the rocks (or you'll end up being dead). There aren't any guarantees in the rescue world, it seems to me.

To sue and win over the fact that a car or boat didn't get from Point A to Point B fast enough even though it was physically impossible for the car or boat to do it would in the end, I would think, result in the car or boat not being dispatched at all, and the victims can deal with their situations as best they can.

While it has never come up and the odds of it ever coming up are very slim, this is why will will not offer another boater physical assistance other than to pull them out of the water if they are in it and we can reach them without endangering ourselves.

If we were to try and fail to pull a boat out of danger then the "I'm a victim" mentality so prevalent in this country will take over, or be set in motion by an ambulance-chasing attorney, and we would most likely be held partly or fully responsible for whatever the damages turned out to be.

So we will stand by if there is any value to be obtained from that and we will relay radio messages if necessary. But we will not do a thing to try to save or free another vessel. We are not equipped to do it, we are not trained to do it, and we do not have a city's, county's, state's, or federal organization's liability insurance to back us up.
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