Re: Sailboat vs. Powerboat accident
this thing still gets me irked......
this c&p from the boat us article.....
Alcohol. Right from the start, questions were raised about how the investigation was handled. As soon as the police arrived, Dinius was given a breathalyzer test and later a blood test at the hospital. He was found to have a BAC of .12. The bigger issue is Deputy Sheriff Perdock?s blood alcohol level. A Lake County sergeant told a local TV reporter that he was instructed by a superior not to give a breathalyzer test to Chief Deputy Perdock. Instead, Lake County Sheriff James Beland drove Perdock to a nearby hospital where a blood sample was taken.
Accounts vary as to what happened next. Beland testified that after they left the hospital, he drove around with Perdock for more than an hour before taking him home and then dropping off the blood sample at the Lower Lake Substation. Beland couldn?t remember what they talked about, but he was fairly certain they didn?t talk about the accident. Beland also couldn?t remember whether the blood sample was in his car?s trunk or on the passenger seat. Perdock contradicted Beland?s testimony, saying that he was certain he didn?t ride home from the hospital with Beland, although he couldn?t recall how he got home. Russell Perdock said that he?d had ?part of a Coors Lite? earlier that afternoon. His blood test came back clean, but according to the label placed on the sample at the hospital he was tested 24 hours after the accident. A deputy filed an addendum later saying that someone at the hospital must have made a mistake; Perdock?s blood was tested two hours after the accident.
It?s worth noting that the switch for the running light breaker switch on the boat was in the ?OFF? position, although this could have happened when the boat was struck and the electrical wire supplying voltage to the light was severed. The cabin light switch was ?ON.? The sailboat was left unsecured for at least nine hours after the accident and the observation was recorded two days after the collision. This was not addressed in the lake County Sheriff?s Department report
Dan Noyes, a television reporter who investigated the story for ABC news in San Francisco, identified nine people on the sailboat or on shore who said they had seen the sailboat?s running lights, cabin light or both shortly before the collision. But when he told the Lake County District Attorney there were witnesses who had seen the lights, Noyes was told, ?No, there are not.? One of the potential witnesses, Doug Jones, told Noyes that when he tried to tell a deputy sheriff that he?d seen the sailboat?s lights, he was told they had already proven there were no lights on. This was at 8:00 a.m. on the morning after the accident. He told Noyes the deputy refused to take his statement.
? Speed. One of the witnesses on shore who said that he saw the sailboat?s running lights was a retired law enforcement officer. The same retired officer told Noyes that he saw the speeding Baja shortly before the collision and had commented to friends, ?There?s a clown who is either going to kill himself or somebody else.? He estimated the boat was going about 50 mph. Other witnesses who had seen the Baja estimated it was going as fast as 60 mph.
lets just hope justice prevailes in this situation
