You may have heard the story of the Clear Lake accident. If not here's a quick review:
On April 29, 2006, Chief Deputy Russ Perdock of the Lake County Sheriff's Department slammed his Baja 24 powerboat into Beats Working II, an ODay 27 sailboat. Lynn Thornton, finance of the boat's skipper, Mark Weber, was killed in the accident.
From the carnage, it is estimated by ex-Lake County police officers that that the Chief Deputy's boat was traveling in excess of 45 knots. The time of accident was around 9:30, long after dark, when speeds closer to 5 knots are more prudent on crowded lakes. Simple common sense would seem to point to Perdock as the cause of this accident, yet Lake County charged Bismarck Dinius the vehicular manslaughter of Lynn Thornton. Dinius happened to be holding the tiller of the boat while skipper Mark Webber was below. The reasons for this are:
- Dinius's blood alcohol was .12, which is above the new legal limit of .08;
- Dinius was held responsible for the boat because he was at the helm;
- Perdock claims that the ODay's running lights were not on and were found to be switch off by investigators.
- According to California law if you are steering a vehicle, you are responsible for it
I have many issues with this case which makes my cry foul:
- A sailboat, whether operated by drunks or not, has no ability to avoid a boat traveling at, conservatively, 8 times its speed.
- The rules of the road require vessels to proceed at a speed that is safe for the conditions. If a powerboat is going so fast as to be unable to avoid a slow moving sailboat, then the powerboat's skipper is negligent.
- Even when on, boat lights are extremely hard to see in built-up areas. Prudence requires a slow speed. I, myself, have had close calls with unlit buoys, anchored barges and even container ships, despite my best efforts to keep a good lookout. Even if the lights of the ODay were off, Perdock should have been going slow enough to avoid a collision with an unlit obstacle.
- The rules of the road require power driven vessels to give way to sailboats.
- Sailboats aren't cars. A boat's skipper is responsible for the operations of a boat and any accidents on-board, not the helmsman. The practicalities of passage making (it takes several people to crew a boat, people must eat, sleep, or go down below to take a whizz) mean the a skipper must delegate duties to other people and, as a result, its generally unreasonable for them to refuse. Its the skipper's responsibility to ensure that crew are competent in these duties. If the crew is drunk, it is the skipper's negligence if accidents happen as a result.
- Statements offered by many eye-witnesses reporting:
- that the Webber's running lights we're on,
- that Perdock was traveling at high speed
were refused by the Lake County D.A. and Sheriff's Department because, according to them, (despite the obvious carnage to Webber's boat), there's no way to prove what speed Perdock was traveling.
- Blood tests showed that Perdock hadn't been drinking, but according to the paperwork, his blood wasn't taken for more than 24 hours after the accident. Apparently, Perdock was driven around town for several hours after the accident by a fellow officer.
My heart goes out to Bismarck Dinius. He is clearly is not at fault. He's lost is his friend, his job and is facing financial ruin as he struggles to fund his legal defense. More worryingly, its clear to me if Russ Perdock were not a member of the Sheriff's department, he would be the one facing manslaughter charges now.
For more details, follow the links from
here.
For more details on how you can support Bismarck Dinius, see
here.
