PropellerSafety.com

Archive for December 2011

Mercury Marine Tells Court the McGarrigil Accident is the First One Involving Mercury Tiller Steered Outboards

In McGarrigle v. Mercury Marine, a propeller / kill switch case, Mercury Marine claims John McGarrigle is the the first person NOT using a kill switch to be injured by a Mercury Marine tiller steered outboard. We find that hard to believe, but before we can prove them wrong, we need to determine exactly what […]

Kenneth W. Fisher Will be Allowed to Testify for Plaintiffs in McGarrigle v. Mercury Marine

For basic information on John McGarrigle and Barbara McGarrigle v. Mercury Marine in U.S. District Court, D. New Jersey, see our McGarrigle v. Mercury Marine case page. Very briefly, John McGarrigle fell from a small boat when it hit a wave, was not wearing a lanyard kill switch, the boat circled repeatedly, he tried to […]

McGarrigle v. Mercury Marine propeller case / lanyard kill switch case

John McGarrigle and Barbara McGarrigle v. Mercury Marine. Civil Action No. 09-4625. United States District Court, D. New Jersey. The case was settled August 28, 2012. The Propeller Accident Saturday, July 21, 2007, 37 year old John McGarrigle, of Pennsylvania, was operating a 12 foot aluminum fishing boat on Delaware Bay near Seabreeze, New Jersey […]

Estimating the Total Number of Propeller Accidents: A Senior Design Project

Safety professionals turn to the U.S. Coast Guard Boating Accident Reports Database (BARD) to find the total number of recreational boat propeller accidents reported to USCG. USCG acknowledges some propeller accidents go unreported. The boating industry claims the more severe an accident it is, the more likely it is to be reported, propeller accidents are […]

The Drake Equation vs. the Probability of Being Struck by a Boat Propeller

We recently completed our Developing a Consumer Guide for the Selection of Propeller Guards and Other Propeller Safety Devices post. Part of that project involved creating our Propeller Accident Risk Worksheet. In that worksheet we identify five categories of Propeller Accident Risk: Boat Specifications Risk– some boat types are more likely to be involved in […]

Developing a Consumer Guide for the Selection of Propeller Guards and Other Propeller Safety Devices

This propeller guard selection guide is NOT ready for use. As brightly emblazoned on our documents, they are rough drafts. We posted them to generate a discussion that could improve them as well as provide some ideas to those working on the U.S. Coast Guard’s recently announced efforts to produce a consumer guide to propeller […]

History of Lanyard Kill Switches for Recreational Boats: Inventions, Regulations, Accidents, and Trials

Although the U.S. Coast Guard is still considering regulations that would require boat builders to install kill switches (emergency engine cut-off switches) in all new recreational boats below a certain length and separately considering making their use mandatory, they have been on the market for over 30 years. The basic problem of unmanned boats going […]

NMMA & PGIC Public Comments on USCG-2011-0497 Proposed Rule as Wordles

NMMA’s Public Comments on USCG-2011-0497 as a Wordle We covered the National Marine Manufacturers Association NMMA public comments on the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on Recreational Vessel Propeller Strikes and Carbon Monoxide Poisoning in our regulations section. At the close of our coverage, we presented a wordle of NMMA’s comments. […]

Listman vs. OMC trial 1 November Session 1c

This post is part of our coverage of the Listman v. OMC propeller injury trial Robin Listman vs. Outboard Marine Corporation Second Judicial District Court of the State of Nevada, County of Washoe 1 November 2011 Session One – pm (Note there was no morning session, this was an afternoon session per CVN)

Review of Public Comments on USCG-2011-0497 Proposed Propeller Strike & CO Poisoning Rule

Review of public comments on U.S. Coast Guard’s (USCG) Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking titled, Recreational Vessel Propeller Strike and Carbon Monoxide Poisoning Casualty Prevention. Comments were due by November 25, 2011. We were disappointed with the total number of responses, but thank all those on both sides of the propeller safety issue for responding. […]