Kansas City Boat Accident Lawyer

Kansas City’s beautiful boating lakes and waterways beckon to those who enjoy powerboating, canoeing, kayaking, and fishing. A day on the water is one of life’s most enjoyable recreational outings, making it easy to forget the inherent dangers of operating watercraft on a lake or waterway. Kansas City boat accident lawyers know all too well the risks involved, as boating accidents can lead to serious injuries and fatalities. Unfortunately, there were 122 reported injuries to recreational boaters in Missouri in a single recent year, with 28 fatalities.

When a day on the lake ends in a boating accident with injuries or fatalities, trust Miller & Hine. Call our Kansas City law firm to speak to a boating accident attorney who can help you gain compensation through financial accountability.

How Choosing Miller & Hine Benefits Your Boat Accident Claim In Kansas City

For over 50 years of combined history, the personal injury attorneys at Miller & Hine have advocated for injury victims in Kansas City and the surrounding area with assertive legal action and meticulous attention to detail. By choosing Miller & Hine, your case benefits through the following:

• The knowledge, skills, and resources of an entire legal team, as well as the personalized attention of the attorney dedicated to your case
• Access to the best medical experts and accident reconstruction specialists to ensure we have compelling evidence for your compensation
• Experienced investigators and skilled negotiators to protect your best interests throughout the process of recovering your damages
• An open-communication policy so you are never in the dark about the progress of your case

With our policy of free case consultations and contingency-based payment, you pay us nothing for our legal representation until after we recover compensation for you in your Kansas City boat accident case.

What Causes Boating Accidents In Missouri?

Missouri’s iconic Lake of the Ozarks and Kansas City’s Lake Olathe marina make boating a popular summer pastime for many water enthusiasts in the Kansas City area. Unfortunately, accidents and injuries sometimes occur when boaters fail to take the reasonable measures required to prevent causing harm to others sharing the waterway. Common causes of boating accidents in Missouri include the following:

• Inattentive or inexperienced boat operator
• Speeding
• Operator intoxication
• Inadequate equipment maintenance
• Inadequate lookout
• Inadequate safety equipment
• Collisions between boats
• Collisions with obstacles
• Navigational mistakes
• Wake force accidents
• Flooding
• Capsizing
• Failing to adjust to inclement weather or water conditions
• Reckless behavior
• Overloading
• Allowing riding on the bow, deck, or gunwale without protective guardrails
• Lack of Coast Guard-approved life jackets, flotation devices, and fire extinguishers

When someone else’s careless, reckless, or wrongful actions cause you to experience serious injuries in a boating accident, you don’t have to be left responsible for the economic consequences as well as the physical pain, suffering, and emotional trauma. Under Missouri’s fault-based accident laws, the party responsible for the accident is liable for your damages.

Liability Laws In Kansas City Boating Accidents

Boat owners are liable for any damages caused by their vessels, regardless of who is operating the vessel when an accident occurs. Similar to the state’s traffic laws, boat operators have a legal duty of care requiring them to follow laws and take all reasonable measures to avoid causing injuries to others. If a boat owner or operator fails to take these reasonable measures, it is a breach of their duty of care. When the breach of duty directly causes an accident and injuries, and the injury victim experiences significant damages from the injury, the boat owner is liable for the property damage and injury costs. Proving liability for a boat accident in Kansas City requires showing evidence of negligence, such as excessive speeding, operating a boat while intoxicated, or failing to yield the right of way to another vessel. In typical cases, a boat accident attorney assists the injury victim in documenting this evidence and presenting it to the boat owner’s liability insurance to recover compensation for personal injury damages.

What Types of Injuries Happen In Boat Accidents In Kansas City?

Boat accidents can cause serious harm to those aboard the vessel at the time of a collision, explosion, or capsize. Common injuries in boating accidents include the following:

• Drowning
• Head injuries
• Traumatic brain injuries
• Whiplash and other neck injuries
• Back injuries
• Fractures
• Burns
• Soft-tissue injuries like sprains, strains, torn ligaments, and tendon damage
• Spinal cord injuries
• Internal injuries
• Propeller injuries such as contusions, lacerations, and traumatic amputations
• Electrocutions
• Heat stroke/dehydration
• Hypothermia

In the worst cases, a boating accident in Kansas City or elsewhere in Missouri causes the wrongful death of a loved one. Drowning is the most common cause of boating accident fatalities in Missouri.

Reporting a Boat Accident In Missouri

Missouri not only implements boating laws to minimize the risk of accidents, but there are also laws in place for required reporting after an accident on the water. After a boating accident in the Kansas City area, boaters must do the following:

• Notify the Missouri Highway Patrol of the accident and provide the vessel registration number, your name and address, your driver’s license number—with or without a boating endorsement—and the number of your Missouri boater safety identification card
• File an accident report with the Missouri Highway Patrol if the accident involves a fatality, injury, or $500 or more in property damage

Reporting an accident is a critical component of filing a successful boat accident claim in Missouri.

What Compensation Can I Recover In a Boating Accident Claim?

Injuries quickly become expensive when they require medical treatment and recovery time away from work. Common damages recovered in Kansas City boating accident claims include the following:

• Property damage to a vessel
• Medical expenses
• Anticipated future medical costs
• Lost wages
• Future income loss or diminished future earning capacity
• Compensation for pain and suffering
• Compensation for any other applicable damages in your case, such as disfigurement, scarring, loss of limb, or diminished quality of life

If a loved one died in a Missouri boating accident, you could recover compensation for your family through a Missouri wrongful death claim.

How Can a Kansas City Boating Accident Attorney Help?

Missouri operates under a pure comparative negligence system for accidents, including boat accidents. Under this system, an injury victim may recover compensation for their damages even if they contributed to the cause of the accident. If the insurance company determines that an injury victim shares a portion of fault for a boating accident, the insurance company reduces the payout on the claim by the injury victim’s percentage of fault. Unfortunately, this may incentivize the insurance company in your case to assign an undue portion of fault to you to protect their profits. Call the Kansas City boat accident lawyers at Miller & Hine today to begin an assertive, proactive defense of your rights throughout the boating accident compensation claim process.