On 10/22/12, at approximately 1:30pm, a vessel (LA1778EN) was heading east in the Intercoastal Canal Waterway (ICW), when it snagged a piece of rope that was attached to a mooring buoy, belonging to Halliburton. The vessel was traveling at a high rate of speed when it snagged the rope causing the vessel to come to a quick stop, which caused the passenger to fall from his seat onto the deck of the vessel. Victim claimed to have injured his left foot, right hip, right shoulder, chest, neck, and his back.  Victim was later transported to the Lady of the Sea Hospital in Cut Off, where he was treated for bruising.  

Operator was not injured and the vessel sustained no damage. On 11/1/2012 Victim contacted the Region 6 office to report the accident.  On 11/5/12 at 7:00 a.m., Agent received the complaint of the accident and began his investigation. Agent interviewed Victim first and received a voluntary statement, see attached document.  Victim told Agent that they were traveling in the ICW when they hit a rope in the middle of the ICW that was attached to a Halliburton buoy.  Agent then interviewed the operator/owner of the vessel. Agent gave Operator an operator boating incident report to fill out, which he did.  Operator also advised Agent that he was heading east bound in the ICW when he struck a 2' poly pro black and yellow rope in the middle of the ICW, see attached diagram. Operator also drew a gram of the accident showing his vessel in the middle of the ICW and the rope stretched halfway across the ICW, see attached diagram. Operator advised Agent that there was no damage to his vessel from this accident, and that all damage to the lower unit of the motor was old and not a result from this incident.  Operator  purchased the vessel on 8/6/12, and had all proper paperwork filled out, along with a bill of sale, but had not sent it to LDWF within the 45 days required by law.  Operator had also neglected to report the accident within the 48 hours as required by law.  Agent then photographed the vessel LA778EN and observed that the vessel had remote steering that was in good working order. The vessel was equipped with 2 type III PFD that were in good working order, but were not used by either men at time of the accident.  Agent was not able to determine whether or not alcohol and  or drugs were contributing factors due to the fact that the accident occurred 14 days prior to notification.  Agent then went to Halliburton and interviewed two people who showed Agent video of accident which was caught on their security cameras.  Agent observed the vessel passing within feet of the buoy on the side of the ICW, not in the middle of the ICW like both Operator and Victim had described, see attached copy of video.

Larose                        