Rental and Charter Boat Accidents: Who Can Be Sued?

When a Rental Boat Trip Ends in an Accident

Renting or chartering a boat can give people access to the water without owning a vessel themselves. Rental fleets may include pontoons, fishing boats, speedboats, personal watercraft, and other recreational vessels.

But rental boats can also place inexperienced operators behind the controls of an unfamiliar vessel. Add crowded waterways, changing weather, alcohol, or mechanical problems, and a recreational outing can quickly turn into a serious accident.

Rental boat accidents may involve collisions with other vessels, crashes into docks or fixed objects, falls overboard, propeller injuries, capsizing, and other incidents.

Determining who can be held responsible usually starts with identifying what caused the accident.

The Rental Boat Operator

The person driving the boat may be responsible when careless operation causes an injury.

Federal law prohibits operating a recreational vessel negligently in a way that endangers another person's life, safety, or property. Examples of unsafe operation may include:

• Traveling too fast for the conditions
• Failing to maintain a proper lookout
• Ignoring navigation rules
• Operating while distracted
• Boating under the influence
• Making unsafe turns or passing maneuvers
• Traveling too close to swimmers or other vessels
• Ignoring no-wake zones
• Overloading the boat

An operator does not necessarily avoid responsibility simply because the boat was rented. Once someone takes control of a vessel, they are generally responsible for operating it safely.

The Boat Rental Company

A rental company is not automatically responsible whenever one of its boats is involved in an accident. However, the company may be liable when its own negligence contributes to what happened. For example, a claim may involve allegations that the rental company:

• Provided a boat with known mechanical problems
• Failed to properly inspect or maintain the vessel
• Rented a boat with defective safety equipment
• Failed to provide required safety instructions
• Allowed someone who did not meet legal requirements to operate the vessel
• Ignored dangerous weather or water conditions
• Continued renting a vessel after previous complaints about a defect

Rental requirements vary by state. Some states require rental operators to provide specific boating or personal watercraft safety instructions before a customer is allowed to operate the vessel.

The rental company's responsibilities therefore depend partly on where the accident occurred and what type of vessel was involved.

The Vessel Owner

The rental business does not always own the boat. In some situations, one company owns the vessel while another manages or rents it to customers.

An owner may potentially bear responsibility when an unsafe condition involving the vessel contributed to the accident, particularly if the owner knew or should have known about a serious problem and failed to address it.

Federal law also recognizes liability involving certain known defects in a vessel's hull or machinery that cause passenger injuries.

Ownership arrangements can therefore become important when determining who was responsible for inspecting, repairing, and maintaining the boat.

Maintenance Providers and Equipment Manufacturers

Sometimes an accident happens because the boat itself fails. A steering system may malfunction. A throttle may stick. An engine could lose power at a critical moment. A fuel-system problem could cause a fire or explosion.

If improper maintenance or repairs caused the failure, the company that serviced the boat may be responsible.

If a defective product contributed to the accident, liability may instead involve the boat or component manufacturer. Federal law requires recreational vessel manufacturers to provide notice after discovering certain safety defects that create a substantial risk of personal injury. 

More than one party may ultimately share responsibility when both defective equipment and poor maintenance contribute to a crash.

Other Boaters May Also Be Responsible

The fact that someone was using a rental boat does not mean they caused the accident.

Another boat operator may have been speeding, failed to yield, ignored navigation rules, or created another dangerous condition. In a collision involving multiple vessels, investigators may examine the actions of every operator involved.

Responsibility may ultimately be divided among several people or companies depending on the evidence and applicable law.

Evidence After a Rental Boat Accident

Rental boat cases often involve records that would not exist in an accident involving a privately owned vessel. Helpful evidence may include:

• The rental agreement
• Safety instructions provided before departure
• Vessel inspection and maintenance records
• Photographs and videos
• Witness statements
• GPS or navigation data
• Surveillance footage from the marina
• Accident or law enforcement reports
• Weather and water conditions
• Medical records
• Communications with the rental company

The condition of the boat itself may also be important. Repairing or returning the vessel to service before it can be inspected can make it harder to determine whether a mechanical failure contributed to the accident.

Compensation After a Rental Boat Accident

An injured person may be able to pursue compensation for medical expenses, lost income, pain and suffering, disability, future treatment, and other accident-related losses.

The available compensation depends on the injuries, applicable law, insurance coverage, and the parties responsible for the accident.

Morgan & Morgan May Be Able to Help

Rental boat accidents can become complicated when the operator, vessel owner, rental business, maintenance company, and manufacturer are all different parties.

Morgan & Morgan's maritime accident attorneys can investigate the crash, review rental and maintenance records, analyze rental agreements, preserve important evidence, identify potentially responsible parties, and fight for the compensation you may deserve.

Contact Morgan & Morgan for a free, no-obligation case evaluation. With The Fee Is Free™, you pay nothing unless we win your case.