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- Jul 22, 2015
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I think ladd got it right. Just my 2 cents.
I don't really think so. The statute simply states that a person is guilty of a Class C felony if they negligently cause the death of another human being. I would actually agree if he had fallen out of boat because the law does not require you to wear that kill switch lanyard in a normal motorboat. The law does specifically require it for personal watercraft however, and it requires is specifically to avoid situations like this. The law recognizes people will operate personal watercraft in a manner that is different from normal motorboats and because of this difference in operation style a rider is more likely to be thrown from the watercraft thus the requirement to wear the lanyard to kill the motor. This incident was 100% what that law is designed to prevent. He didn't take proper care to prevent that personal watercraft from going out of control when there is a high probability that he would fall off and that failure to take proper care caused the death of another human being. Were there other contributing factors? Apparently there were but the biggest single factor that caused the death of that girl was this guy's negligence.