Our personal injury law firm is a team of highly-qualified lawyer specialists with years of experience and an excellent track record for achieving outstanding results. Our personal injury attorneys have recovered millions of dollars for our injured Massachusetts clients. Have you or your loved one suffered injuries due to another person’s negligent actions? If so, our Boston, Massachusetts personal injury advocates will work with great skill and expertise to get you the money compensation you rightly deserve. Please call 617-787-3700, 24/7, or email info@gilhoylaw.com for your free and confidential consultation.
Imagine a warm, sunny day in South Carolina. It’s May, and the long, hot summer is just around the corner. You can feel it in the air. In fact, it’s so warm outside that you and your family decide to spend the weekend on the lake. Other people are out enjoying the weather, just like your family. People are skiing, tubing, jet-skiing, and boating all across the water. Like any other public place, there is a reasonable expectation of safety when out on the lake.
Especially on hot summer days, these small and enclosed bodies of water are full of water bound vehicles that can cause injury if operated negligently. This is critical for operators to understand, particularly because many watercraft do not have braking systems. Usually, the local police patrol lakes and ponds in their jurisdiction to prevent accidents from happening. Unfortunately, human nature sometimes finds a way to cause havoc. Boating accidents happen in the United States every year, and sometimes are severe enough to claim the lives of innocent people.
On May 19, 2014, 26-year-old Justin Reed Walters was driving his boat on Lake Marion in South Carolina. Eyewitnesses at the lake that day claim that an unidentifiable boat was driving at an excessively high rate of speed. The driver apparently did not see 19-year-old Millicent McDonald riding her jet ski. The two watercraft collided and McDonald was seriously injured. McDonald was airlifted from the scene to a nearby Columbia hospital. She never regained consciousness, and she was pronounced brain dead less than 24 hours later. McDonald was removed from life support and died shortly thereafter.
In the wake of this terrible tragedy, police could not initially identify the perpetrator of what is likely a crime. But after four months of investigating, they traced the evidence at the scene and elsewhere to Walters, who has since been arrested and charged with reckless homicide by operation of a boat.
If you or someone you know has been injured by another party’s reckless behavior or misconduct, please contact a member of our team of Massachusetts personal injury attorneys. We will work tirelessly to pursue your potential claim and retrieve the compensatory damages that you rightly deserve. Call us, 24/7, at 617-787-3700, or email us at info@gilhoylaw.com for your free and confidential consultation. Your needs are our top priority!
