On Sunday September 1st, 2013 at approximately 1540 hours, I received a report from my dispatch of an accident on the Colorado River near the Riverside Casino in Laughlin. Game Warden and I were a double unit that day and we responded to the accident. When we arrived we were told that two PWCs had collided just north of the highway 95 bridge from Laughlin to Bullhead City. Each PWC had two occupants at the time of the accident. One PWC had been stopped and was drifting awaiting the other to approach. The operator of this PWC was ejected and was injured in the accident and was transported to WARMC medical center for a possible broken leg and rib injury. This occurred before we arrived on scene. 

The passenger of this PWC received a minor scrape on her leg from the accident and was ejected as well. The operator of the impacting vessel and her passenger were both uninjured but were both ejected from the force of the collision. Operator1 was approaching the drifting PWC at a rate of speed that was much too fast to approach the drifting vessel. She states she must have accelerated directly at the other PWC which caused them to collide at roughly a 45 degree angle to the port front section of the drifting vessel. The impacting PWC continued down the port side of the drifting vessel causing a broken rearview mirror, fiberglass damage and impacting both passengers of the drifting vessel causing major injury to the operator and minor injury to the passenger. Both PWCs had minor damage.

Game Warden went to the hospital to speak with the injured operator. He received a written statment from her and found her injuries to be a sprained left ankle and a rib contusion.

In order to ascertain the monetary value of the damages to the two PWCs I examined and photographed the damaged portion of both vessels. On the impacting vessel there was the presence of minor scrapes in the front paint of the PWC, but no damage to the fiberglass. There was also a section of the rub rail that had been torn by the impact. Based upon my training and experience in boat accident investigation I estimated the damage to this vessel to be approximately $200 for the paint and rub rail. On the vessel that was impacted there was the presence of a crack in the fiberglass (measuring approximately 9 inches in length by 4 inches in width) as well as a broken side mirror along the port side of the vessel. Based upon the fact that fiberglass repair is estimated at $500 dollars/square foot I estimated the fiberglass damage on this vessel to be approximately $300 and the broken mirror at approximately $200 bringing the total estimated damage to this vessel to $500.
Laughlin