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Archive for Propeller Safety – Page 18

Hydrodynamics of Propeller Accidents – Part 1 the History

Little research has been done surrounding the hydromechanics of people / swimmers/ man overboard encounters with propellers or propeller guards. We will now explore this field, some of the opportunities it presents, and some recent research that looks very applicable to studying the hydrodynamics of human / boat / propeller / propeller guard interactions. We […]

U.S. Coast Guard 2010 BARD Unreported Propeller Accidents: Carla Faul Pontoon Boat Propeller Accident in Florida

The boating industry continues to claim almost all boat propeller accidents are reported in BARD. They base their claims on the United States Coast Guard’s claims that the more serious a boating accident is, the more likely it is to be reported. The industry says propeller injury accidents are very serious and therefore they must […]

Florida Propeller Accidents Missing From U.S. Coast Guard 2010 Boating Accident Report Database (BARD)

As mentioned in our previous review of propeller accident reporting in USCG’s BARD 2010 database, 7 of the 10 propeller accidents we found news media reports for that were not listed in BARD occurred in the State of Florida. That got us wondering if something might be different with their reporting criteria, their boating accident […]

U.S. Coast Guard 2010 Boating Accident Report Database (BARD) Left Out Many Propeller Accidents

The boating industry continues to claim that all or almost all recreational boat propeller accidents are captured in BARD, the United States Coast Guard’s Boating Accident Report Database. This post proves that to be untrue. USCG receives boating accident reports from the states and from Coast Guard accident reports on fatal boating accidents that occur […]

USCG 2010 Boating Accident Report Database (BARD) Has Been Castrated

The State of California asked USCG to remove their boating accidents from BARD beginning in 2000 to protect the privacy of their citizens. Supposedly their data is still included in the summaries, but we can no longer see the details of individual boating accidents in California. Over time, a few more states have leaped on […]

Litigation Testing Continues in Testing of Propeller Guards by Mercury Marine / Brunswick

Litigation Testing of propeller safety devices was defined by Stephen Bolden, author of Motorboat Propeller Injury Accidents, as “…manufacturers, in performing litigation testing, are not concerned with gathering information for the purpose of redesigning or improving a guard; rather, they are concerned with simply reporting on whatever propeller guard deficiencies they are able to demonstrate […]

Does the Risk-Utility Test Exception for Simple Tools Apply to Boat Propellers?

In mid 2011, Brunswick requested a rehearing of their appeal of the Jacob Brochtrup propeller injury case in front of the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. Brunswick feels the original court (U.S. District Court, Western District of Texas, Austin) did not force Brochtrup to prove the design of their boat was unreasonably dangerous under […]

Propeller Accident News Media Coverage Phase 3 (Released From Hospital Stay) Wordle

The third in a series of posts investigating news media coverage of propeller accidents. We continue with our study using news media coverage of the Gabby DeSouza February 5, 2011 boat propeller accident as our example. This one follows our Phase 2 The Hospital Stay Wordle. This time we analyzed several news media articles of […]

Propeller Accident News Media Coverage Phase 2 (The Hospital Stay) Wordle

This article is a continuation of our series investigating news media coverage of propeller accidents by using wordles of a collection of news articles about a specific accident. It follows, Phase 1 Breaking News Coverage of Propeller Accidents. We continue to study news media coverage of the same boat propeller accident, Gabby DeSouza injured by […]

Brunswick Calls For Rehearing of Brochtrup Propeller Case Appeal

The U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals found for Brochtrup on May 27, 2011 in Brunswick’s appeal of a U.S. District Court, Western District, Austin Division jury finding for Brochtrup resulting from a July 1, 2005 propeller accident. Mercury Marine and Sea Ray are the Brunswick units listed on the case. On June 10, 2011 […]