PropellerSafety.com

Archive for September 2012

Update on Daniel Perez vs. Yamaha Motor ($39 million verdict in June 2011)

On Easter Sunday, March 27, 2005, two teenage girls from Cooper City (Samantha Archer,15, and Jaysell Perez, 14) borrowed a 2001 Yamaha WaveRunner X800 PWC from a family friend at his waterfront home. They took it out on the intracoastal waterway at West Palm Beach, Florida near Currie Park. While in process of turning around […]

PGIC Now Hosting SPIN

Stop Propeller Injuries Now (SPIN) – an Advocate for Boat Propeller Safety PropellerSafety.com is proud announce that as of yesterday (26 September 2012) we now hosting the SPIN (Stop Propeller Injuries Now) web site. Per their site, “SPIN actively promotes boating safety issues, specifically the need to protect the public from accidents and fatalities from […]

Mark Barhanovich Boat Propeller Accident at Deer Island Near Biloxi, MS: Dredge Pipe Strike?

Mark Barhanovich, 54, of Biloxi Mississippi was on fishing trip with a friend early Sunday morning September 16, 2012. They were in a 23 foot center console fishing boat off the coast of Mississippi in the Mississippi Sound, just east of Deer Island on their way to Horn Island. Biloxi, Mississippi is the largest city […]

Detecting People Near Boats More Reliably Using Optical Image Stabilization: An Invention

Our Detecting People Near Boats More Reliably Using Optical Image Stabilization invention disclosure below was posted on 19 September 2012. We will make no changes to the text below the line following this paragraph except to correct misspellings, punctuation, and to update html/computer codes and links. Any updates to the invention will be posted below […]

Boating Industry Needs Legal Defense Against Emerging Propeller Safety Devices / Technologies

The boating industry has been pretty successful in defending propeller injury cases when the plaintiff presents a traditional propeller guard (ring or cage type guard) as the exemplar, example of how the defendant could have prevented the accident. This post reviews those defenses, reviews how some modern day products are challenging those defenses, and how […]

Contrapel Water Jet

Two New Zealand inventors (Barry Davies and Paul Paterson) have spent nearly twenty years developing a contra-rotating water jet. Like contra-rotating propellers, the Contrapel waterjet uses two impellers turning in opposite directions. The original efforts were by a firm called ContraJet Ltd. After that effort stalled, it became PropellerJet Ltd. The water jet research and […]

William E. Coxe III vs. Yamaha Motor Corporation USA and Maverick Boat Company Propeller Case Settled

William E. Coxe III was boating in Beaufort County, South Carolina, with a companion on January 31, 2009 in his 18 foot Hewes Redfisher built by Maverick Boat Company. As they returned to the CC Haigh Jr. Boat Landing, Mr. Coxe dropped off his companion to go get his truck and boat trailer. Mr. Coxe […]

Adrian Todd v. Marine Power International Pty Ltd T/as Mercury Marine Australia Propeller Case Settled

Adrian Todd was 14 years old when he was struck in the face by a boat propeller on April 21, 2008 at Refuge Bay in New South Wales (NSW) Australia. His cheekbone was crushed, his left eye socket was damaged, his left cheek was severely lacerated, his nose and upper lip were cut in half, […]

RingProp Intellectual Property for Sale by Edward Symmons

Several years ago, a UK firm tried to commercialize a ringed propeller from Australia called RingProp. The propeller was said to be safer than traditional propellers because human limbs could not easily enter between the blades. When the propeller was spinning it created a shroud around the blades. Efforts to develop RingProp were spread over […]

3PO Navigator Propeller Guard Invented by Guy Taylor Receives U.S. Patent

Guy Taylor received U.S. Patent 8,257,121 for a “Boat Propeller Shield” on September 4, 2012. His 3PO Propeller Shield automatically swings up from his hexagonal shaped Navigator guard when underway to reduce drag. The shield automatically falls down to protect people behind the boat when the boat is at rest or backing up.