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Boat Driver Not Intoxicated In Easter Sunday Wreck That Killed Five

By Eddie Farah

Blood alcohol has just come back on the person in the driver's seat of that Easter Sunday boating crash on the Intracoastal that left five people dead.

There was a great deal of speculation that alcohol had some part to play, but the test came back on the 44-year old woman at 0.035 percent, well below the blood-alcohol level for intoxication in Florida at 0.08.

That means the driver had the equivalent of a drink and a half.

On Easter Sunday, nine people were injured in addition to those who died aboard the 22- foot Crownline which slammed into a tugboat anchored at a private dock about a mile north of the Palm Valley Bridge.

44-year old Jacqueline Allen was steering the Crownline, though she was not the owner. She died in the crash.

It's been estimated she was driving the boat about 30 to 35 mph when the boat hit a tugboat tied up on one of the docks that extend into the Intracoastal in this eight-mile stretch along Palm Valley known as "the ditch" to boaters. That's because the navigable waters are shallow and narrow.

Allen and her friend, 42-year-old Immaculada Pierce were invited to join the group at the Conch House Marine in St. Augustine. Pierce was also killed.

An attorney for some of the injured says that people sitting on the bow of the boat obscured the view of the driver and that's what led to the crash.

Another theory is emerging, and it's a danger that has been long known in this stretch of north Florida waterway.

David Roach, who is the executive director of the Florida Inland Navigation District, has been speaking out for awhile about some of the private docks sticking into the Intracoastal Waterway. Roach tells the Florida Times Union, 'I think that's what you saw here, [the dock] was so close to the channel it didn't give this person any degree of error. Once she strayed out of the channel she was in trouble.'

Some of the docks are built 36 feet from the edge of the navigation channel, which in itself is only 125 feet wide. With docks on both side of the channel that does not leave much room to maneuver.

This investigation promises to take some time as the nine injured survivors are interviewed, and the engine block is examined closely as well as the throttle and damage to both boats.

An investigation will include whether the docks need to be modified to make this area safer. As one observer said, as it stands now, this was an accident waiting to happen. About the best thing that can happen to honor those who died, is to make this a safer situation for everyone who uses this waterway so we never see a repeat of this senseless loss of life. #

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Eddie Farah

Full post as published by Jacksonville Personal Injury Lawyer on April 19, 2009 (boomark / email).