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Fisherman sues after dramatic boat crash caught on video.

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A fisherman who jumped ship into bone-chilling water to dodge a speeding motorboat has filed a $372,500 lawsuit, alleging the other driver was distracted by his cellphone just before the dramatic crash caught on video.

Bryan Maess filed the suit earlier this month against Marlin Lee Larsen, 75, over the Aug. 12 crash near the mouth of the Columbia River and the Pacific Ocean, the Oregonian reports .

A GoPro camera mounted to Maess’ 20-foot fishing boat captured the chaos in the seconds before Larsen’s 31-foot motorboat crashes into the smaller, stationary vessel. A passenger on Maess’ boat frantically waves his arms and repeatedly screams “Hey!” in a desperate attempt to get the driver’s attention.

“Oh my God,” another passenger screams just before the trio leap into the chilly water.

The video — which was later posted to Facebook — shows the moment the speeding motorboat plows into Maess’ fishing vessel.

Deputies in Clatsop County and the US Coast Guard responded to the crash in the Columbia River near Tansy Point and found significant damage to the fishing boat. Maess and his two passengers, Christopher McMahon and Roni Durham, managed to jump from the fishing boat just before the crash and were later treated for non-life-threatening injuries, according to the Clatsop County Sheriff’s Office .

Drugs and alcohol did not appear to be a factor in the crash, deputies said. Larsen was cited for reckless operation, three counts of reckless endangerment and three counts of fourth-degree assault.

Larsen told investigators he couldn’t see where he was driving since he was sitting down. Larsen, who uses a motorized scooter on land, admitted that he probably should’ve been standing at the time, according to a sheriff’s report obtained by the Oregonian.

Larsen’s son-in-law, who was also on the boat at the time, told investigators that he occasionally saw Larsen using his cellphone while driving the boat. State law bans cellphone use while driving, but there are no specific laws governing cellphone use while boating.

Larsen has denied using his cellphone while driving the motorboat, claiming that allegations to the contrary were “fake news,” according to the Oregonian. He has pleaded not guilty as his criminal case unfolds.

Investigators said Maess and his passengers likely dodged serious injury or death by leaping into the water. More than five months after the crash, Maess, who is a police officer, continues to suffer vision problems, headaches and injuries to his ankle, leg and arm, according to the suit.

McMahon and Durham have yet to file lawsuits against Larsen, although they’ve hired attorneys to do so. Attorney Josh Lamborn said Durham suffered psychological trauma during the crash and hasn’t been able to return to the water since August.

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The Rest of the Story

By Jeff Moag
Updated: June 22, 2021

If you’ve been on the Internet in the last four years, you’ve probably seen the video. It starts with three salmon fishermen waving and shouting as a 31-foot powerboat bears down on their small skiff near the mouth of the Columbia River in Oregon.

“Hey!” yells the skiff’s owner, Chris McMahon. “Hey! HEY!”

But the oncoming boat doesn’t turn or slow. It keeps coming until its bow fills the frame, and the anglers leap into frigid water just as the larger boat runs up and over their 20-foot aluminum Weldcraft.

A GoPro camera mounted on McMahon’s boat caught it all. If you freeze the video at just the right moment, you can see Bryan Maess is still aboard the skiff as the 31-foot Bayliner Trophy climbs its transom. At that instant the third angler, Roni Durham, is half in the water and half out, her feet pointed to the sky. McMahon remembers diving headfirst into the water and staying under as long as he could to keep clear of the Bayliner’s twin propellers. It turns out he needn’t have worried—the props came clear out of the water, with one of them carving a serrated line along the Weldcraft’s aluminum gunwale.

The video clip racked up more than 7 million views online. There were news articles and lawsuits, but the story of what happened after the impact has never been told publicly—and it’s just as harrowing as the accident itself.

We’ll get to that in a minute. But first, you may be wondering how one boat can slam into another on a clear calm day. The short answer is operator inattention. The operator of the Bayliner, Marlin Larsen, was sitting down at the helm and may have been looking at his cell phone. He told Clatsop County deputies that he never saw McMahon and his companions in their 20-foot boat.

“According to his son-in-law and grandson who were on the boat, he kept playing on his phone and apparently they told him multiple times to stay off the phone,” McMahon says. “That’s what they told the sheriff’s department and Coast Guard. Larsen himself told me he had mounted some new electronics on the dash and that created a blind spot. So when he was running he just sat down and couldn’t see.”

The result was the collision captured on McMahon’s GoPro, and three people in the water. Only Durham was wearing a life jacket, and it failed to inflate.

“The collision happened so fast we didn’t have a chance to get scared. It’s like you walk out in the middle of the road with a semi truck coming and you jump out of the way,” McMahon said of the August 2017 incident. “The scary part comes when you have time to actually think about what’s happening to you.”

The sheer randomness of the accident is the best argument for the one thing McMahon didn’t do that day—wear his life jacket.

The accident took place near Buoy 10 at the mouth of the Columbia River, an area known for shifting shoals, ferocious currents and world class salmon fishing. On that day, an outgoing tide boosted the Columbia’s already powerful current, sweeping the anglers toward a forest of old pilings. The experience was every bit as scary as being run down by a large powerboat, McMahon says, especially since he knew what was coming.

“I’ve been out there when the current was ripping so hard that those pylons, which are like telephone poles, actually sway back and forth with the current,” he says. “We were getting pulled pretty quick so I was concerned that if we got into the pylons that might be the end of us.”

The anglers struggled to stay afloat in jeans and waterlogged sweatshirts as the current pulled them toward the pilings and the ocean beyond.

Fortunately, McMahon and his friends weren’t the only boaters on the water that day, and good Samaritans quickly swung into action. First on the scene was a man with his young daughter in a small boat with a tiller-style outboard. He maneuvered the little boat expertly to collect the three anglers just before they reached the pilings, but the skiff was too small to take the trio aboard. They held onto the gunwales as the driver motored slowly to the Bayliner, which by that time had slid off the mangled remains of McMahon’s Weldcraft.

Maess and Durham went aboard the Bayliner, but McMahon wasn’t quite ready to meet the man whose inattention had nearly killed him. “Quite honestly I was in shock and I didn’t know how I would react, so I asked him to take me to another boat that was hovering nearby,” he says.

Later, as the survivors spoke at the boat ramp with investigators from the Clatsop County Sheriff’s Department and U.S. Coast Guard, Larsen approached McMahon. “He came over and said ‘Hey, I’m sorry,’ and tried to introduce himself,” McMahon recalls. “I told him there may be a place and a time that I forgive you, but right now is not it and I just need some space.”

Larsen, who was 75 at the time, told deputies he couldn’t see where he was going because he was sitting down and the dash of his boat was blocking his view. He admitted he probably should have been standing, according to the sheriff’s report, which notes that he used a motorized scooter to get around. Authorities cited him with three counts each of assault and reckless endangerment, and one count of reckless operation of a vessel. He pleaded not guilty, but died of natural causes before the criminal case made it to court. Maess and McMahon later sued Larsen’s estate for civil damages.

Looking back on that day, McMahon says there’s nothing he could have done to avoid the accident. Evasive action was out of the question—he was fishing from the stern, far from his boat’s controls, and the Bayliner was on them in an instant. No one could have predicted the collision, which happened in fair weather with good visibility. The sheer randomness of the accident is the best argument for the one thing he didn’t do that day—wear his life jacket.

Before the accident, McMahon would typically only use a life jacket in rough conditions. The close call at Buoy 10 changed his outlook. “I have never been on the water since without a life jacket,” he says.

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New Picture from Terrifying Boat Crash in Oregon

Around the world, more than seven million people (including readers of Cruising Odyssey ) watched the terrifying video showing a larger powerboat bearing down on three fishermen in a small boat near the mouth of the Columbia River in Oregon on Aug. 12, 2017. In the video, the owner of the fishing boat, Chris McMahon, waves his arms and yells, “Hey, Hey, HEY,” as the larger boat, a 31-foot Bayliner Trophy, gets closer and closer.

The video (below) shows one angler, Roni Durham, jump into the water. McMahon also dove in just before the Bayliner climbed up the transom of his boat, a 20-foot Weldcraft. The video shows the third person, Bryan Maess, jumping off just as the Bayliner hit.

What’s new is the picture above, a screen shot, captured by GoPro cameras on the fishing boat, and it’s pretty frightening.

The three anglers were lucky. A Good Samaritan boat nearby saw the accident; it was too small for all three to climb on board, so they hung on to the gunwale while it carried them over to the Bayliner, which by then had freed itself from the back of McMahon’s boat.

Durham and Maess climbed on the Bayliner. McMahon was still upset and didn’t want to board the boat that almost killed him, so the Good Samaritan took him over to another boat.

Marlin Lee Larsen, the driver of the Bayliner, said he was sitting down and didn’t see McMahon’s boat. He had installed some new electronics, he said, and they blocked his view.

Authorities cited Larsen on three counts of assault and reckless endangerment, and one count of reckless operation of a vessel. Larsen was 75 at the time, and used a motorized scooter on land. He pleaded not guilty but passed away before the criminal case made it to court. McMahon and Maess later sued Larsen’s estate for civil damages.

One thing has changed in the intervening four years. At the time of the accident, McMahon was not wearing a life jacket. He now puts one on every time he goes fishing. See the video here:

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Video shows stolen 60-foot yacht crashing into boats in wild chase across California harbor: "Everything came crashing in on me"

March 11, 2022 / 9:31 AM EST / CBS/AP

A man who stole a 60-foot yacht was arrested Thursday after a 10-minute chase that ended with him hitting two other boats and a seawall in Newport Beach harbor, police said. The wild scene was all captured on video, CBS Los Angeles reports.

A report of someone vandalizing a yacht led police to the Pacific Coast Highway shortly after 10 a.m. but when officers arrived they said the suspect jumped into the boat and took off, authorities said.

Dylan Eckardt took video of the boat colliding with a docked sailboat, knocking down its mast.

Debora Dolly was aboard the sailboat when it was struck.

"The entire starboard side came crashing in on me and it didn't stop. It came once, twice, three times," she told CBS Los Angeles. "So the whole boat, the poles, the steel, the enclosure, everything came crashing in on me."

Dolly said she hit her head but otherwise was fine.

After hitting the sailboat, the boat backed up, circled and, pursued by the Orange County Sheriff's Department Harbor Patrol, continued through the harbor until it hit another parked vessel then slammed into a wall beside a bridge.

"The sounds of him hitting that wall brought everyone out of their houses," witness Kai McCartney told CBS Los Angeles.

Joel Siam, 38, of San Diego was arrested on suspicion of grand theft of a boat and possession of a stolen boat and was jailed on $3 million bail, authorities said.

It wasn't immediately clear whether he had an attorney to speak on his behalf.

The yacht was in a dock for maintenance and the keys were inside when it was taken, sheriff's deputies said.

The owner of the stolen boat told the station that it was bought new in August and was to be used for a charter business. The owner also said a half-bottle of tequila from inside the yacht was now gone.

CBS Los Angeles reported that one of the boats damaged in the incident was a 1960 Tolleycraft. The owner had just gotten delivered on Saturday — he hadn't even gotten a chance to take it out yet.

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2 tragic Florida boat crashes, 2 vastly different charges

David Goodhue Miami Herald (TNS)

Both boats were packed with passengers. Both struck fixed channel markers at high speed. Both collisions left one person dead and others injured. And both were investigated by Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officers.

Two shattering boat crashes, more than a year and 100 miles apart in South Florida, share compelling similarities. But the resulting investigations produced dramatically different criminal charges.

A Key West boat mechanic named Daniel Ross, at the wheel in a nighttime collision in October that killed a 46-year-old woman, now faces a homicide charge that could put him behind bars for 15 years. In the other case, a horrific 2022 crash near the exclusive Ocean Reef Club that left one teenage girl dead and another severely injured, prominent Miami real estate broker George Pino has pleaded not guilty to two misdemeanors. The maximum penalty, if convicted, is 60 days.

The felony charge filed earlier this month against Ross has raised new questions about the FWC’s handling of Pino’s case and marine crash investigations, including the diligence of officers when it comes to pursuing the potentially critical contributing factor of alcohol.

Neither man was tested on the scene for impairment, testing that could support, or rule out, additional DUI charges. Ross later provided blood in a hospital but, according to a law enforcement source, the test was botched. Pino simply declined breath and blood tests after his boat sideswiped a marker in deep south Biscayne Bay not far from Ocean Reef, killing Luciana “Lucy” Fernandez, 17, and injuring 10 others, including now-19-year-old Katerina Puig, who remains permanently disabled.

READ MORE: A 17-year-old Miami girl dies after Florida Keys boat crash; 10 others hurt

Fernandez’s parents, Andres and Melissa Fernandez, released a statement to the Miami Herald saying the Key West felony charge has only added to their anger over what they consider soft law enforcement treatment of Pino, a wealthy and well-connected businessman. Even without DUI tests, the FWC and Monroe County prosecutors agreed to charge Ross with a crime that comes with the possibility of significant prison time.

“Learning about this case …, once again, calls into question the investigation conducted by the FWC, as well as the conclusions reached by [Miami-Dade County State Attorney] Katherine Fernandez-Rundle’s office with respect to the senseless boating accident which claimed the life of our teenage daughter, Lucy.”

Ira Leesfield, a Miami attorney specializing in civil maritime law, said he found it unusual for Pino not to be pushed by investigators to submit a blood sample following such a serious crash. But he said it’s not uncommon for individual officers to make differing judgment calls in the chaos of marine crash scenes — decisions that can wind up making or breaking criminal cases.

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“You’re just going to find inconsistencies on the law enforcement side, I’m sorry to tell you,” Leesfield said. “I think the words random, or arbitrary, or inconsistent may apply to some of this, I’m sorry to tell you that.”

Leadership at FWC, which is charged with investigating the vast majority of boat crashes around the state, has repeatedly denied any preferential treatment for Pino and defended its officers and the investigation, insisting that the law limits the ability of officers to demand DUI tests.

Rob Klepper, an FWC spokesperson, also pushed back at trying to read anything into the contrasting severity of charges in the two cases.

“Every single vessel accident is unique and can’t be compared one to one,’’ he said in an interview with the Miami Herald. “You can’t compare boat crashes.”

A tale of two crashes

Boat crashes are everyday events in Florida. With some 1 million registered vessels, the state typically leads the nation in both accidents and deaths — 723 and 63 respectively in 2002, according to the latest FWC annual accident report. Monroe County, which covers the FlorIda Keys, and Miami-Dade usually top the Florida list.

Striking a fixed object like a channel marker in the open water is also surprisingly common, the second-most frequent accident cause in both Miami-Dade and Monroe, according to FWC data, right behind collisions with other boats.

But there were some key differences in the two fatal South Florida crashes, one of them literally night and day.

According to a final FWC report released this month, Ross, 53, and a crew of six were returning in the dark from a memorial service at a sandbar aboard his 22-foot Ranger. One passenger, 46-year-old Misty Wildmon, was sitting on the left gunwale, the edge of the fishing boat’s hull, as it cruised through Safe Harbor Channel at around 25 to 30 mph.

At 8:20 p.m, on an October Friday, the boat hit Daybeacon 5 – the only one of the four markers along the channel without a light. The steel post struck Wildmon “with extreme force,” FWC investigator Glen Way wrote in a Feb. 2 affidavit. She fell backwards, hitting the cover of the Evinrude engine, then dropped into the dark waters.

As Ross stopped the boat, passengers tended to Wildmon’s mother, who suffered minor injuries. Almost a minute went by, according to the FWC report, before anyone realized Wildmon had been ejected. After a search that took about four minutes, they found Wildmon floating face down. They brought her on board, began CPR and called 911, Way wrote.

Ross reached Robbie’s Marina on Stock Island within minutes and paramedics took Wildmon to the Lower Keys Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead at 9:37 p.m.

The crash got little public attention, unlike the one more than a year earlier near Ocean Reef.

It was Labor Day weekend 2002 and Pino, 53, and his wife Cecilia had spent Sunday at Elliott Key celebrating the 18th birthday of their daughter. also named Cecilia, with a dozen of her friends from Our Lady of Lourdes Academy in Southwest Miami-Dade and Carrollton School of the Sacred Heart in Coconut Grove.

The sun was still out as Pino headed back south toward a family place in Ocean Reef, steering his 29-foot Robalo center console down a channel through shallow grass flats known as Cutter Bank. At about 6:30 p.m. the boat struck the very last marker in the channel, No. 15. The FWC later determined the boat was moving at about 50 mph and the violent impact shredded the hull and flipped the vessel.

The rescue response was immediate, starting with nearby private boaters and drawing in a variety of law enforcement agencies. Eleven injured passengers were pulled from the water, four airlifted to the hospital. Fernandez, 17, a senior at Lourdes, died the next day. Puig, a popular star soccer player at Lourdes, survived but with severe brain damage.

The alcohol question

In both investigations, FWC officers questioned passengers about drinking aboard the boats.

In the Key West crash, Way, the FWC investigator, wrote that all six passengers had admitted to drinking but his report never made clear if he tested Ross to see if he was intoxicated. A law enforcement source told the Herald that no field sobriety test had been done but Ross did later agree to having blood drawn in a hospital.

That sample, however, would prove problematic because improper equipment was used, the source said. “It’s not legally admissible.”

In the Pino case, officers also didn’t conduct a field sobriety test at the crash scene or hours later on Elliott Key where officers interviewed passengers and Pino, all who had just been pulled from the bay after a harrowing wreck. The agency said it had no probable cause to do so because the businessman, though shaken, did not seem impaired.

But body camera footage later released by the FWC captures an officer repeatedly asking Pino if wants to submit blood – while also stressing that it was not something he had to do. At one point, Pino denies the request, “No. I had two beers.”

The role of alcohol became a much bigger question the next day when officers hauled the capsized boat back to shore. They found 61 empty alcohol bottles and cans stashed on the boat, along with a half-empty booze bottle and a spent bottle of champagne. By that time, it was too late for testing.

READ MORE: 61 booze containers on crashed boat in Keys — and parents outraged over minor charges

In their now-settled March 17 lawsuit , Rudolfo and Kathya Puig, the parents of Katerina, later accused the Pinos of supplying the teens with alcohol that day, an accusation, through their attorneys, the couple denied. Terms of the confidential settlement have not been released.

In the FWC’s final August 2023 report — the document Miami-Dade prosecutors would use to determine formal charges — investigator William Thompson wrote “alcohol was not considered to be a contributing factor to this accident.” He also wrote that Pino cited the lack of his attorney being present for not agreeing to submit a blood sample to test for alcohol after the crash, a statement not captured on any body cam footage.

FWC defends Pino investigation

The agency has repeatedly defended its investigation. Rodney Barreto, a Miami businessman who chairs the FWC commissioner, wrote in an email to the Herald last year that officers pursued all legal options to collect evidence.

He said the investigator in charge that day was “a certified drug recognition expert and stated in the report that he saw no signs of impairment and neither did any of the other officers at the scene.”

“The law does not enable our officers to compel a blood draw or breath test without probable cause,’ he said. “No one admitted in interviews to consuming alcohol.”

But body cam footage did catch Pino admitting to “two beers” and another passenger told investigators she saw Pino have one alcoholic beverage, according to the FWC’s report. It also remains unclear if FWC officers or their commanders ever discussed seeking a search warrant to force blood sampling. That option is routinely pursued in fatal car accidents by land-based law enforcement agencies, which often have judges on-call to quickly issue such orders — if agencies successfully argue they have probable cause to do so.

READ MORE: Police say alcohol played no role in fatal boat crash, but bodycam video raises questions

Jorge Silva, a Miami personal injury attorney who has represented victims in several high-profile boat accident cases, said it was unusual for police not to draw a blood sample to test for alcohol in any boat accident that results in death or serious injury.

He said he could not comment on the specifics of each case, saying he’s not “intimately familiar” with them and echoing FWC spokesman Klepper that “every case needs to be analyzed on a very fact specific basis.”

“However, I can tell you that when serious injuries occur or a fatality, blood alcohol levels should always be secured,” Silva told the Herald.

FWC accident data from 2022, the latest available, shows investigations rarely find alcohol use as a primary factor in marine accidents. In Monroe, two of 92 reported accidents were blamed on alcohol. Operator inexperience was the top cause at 16. In 90 accidents in Miami-Dade that year, the FWC found alcohol the primary cause in none of them.

Statewide, the agency did find alcohol use to blame in seven of 63 fatal crashes that year.

Two crashes, vastly different charges

It took four months for the FWC to wrap up its investigation of Ross, who repairs boat props for a living. The agency came down hard.

Way, the FWC investigator, wrote that Ross had been reckless in a number of ways: he had no lookout with a spotlight to locate the marker, he was going full speed with a crew that had been drinking and the victim had been sitting in an unsafe area. The FWC also said Ross, who told investigators he was an experienced mariner who had navigated Safe Harbor Channel many times, was also “complacent” and did not rely enough on his GPS to guide him.

All those errors led to Wildmon’s death, concluded Way, who recommended to the Monroe State Attorney’s Office that Ross be charged with felony vessel homicide and reckless boating. The former carries a maximum prison sentence of 15 years if convicted. The latter is a first-degree misdemeanor that carries a maximum sentence of a year in jail.

Ross, who had not been arraigned as of Friday, was released from Monroe County jail after posting a $100,000 bond. When reached by phone last week, he declined to comment, saying he had not spoken with his attorney. He declined to give his attorney’s name, and an attorney is not listed in court records.

The FWC investigation into Pino — president of Doral-based State Street Reality and fixture of Miami’s business and social scene over nearly three decades — took nearly a year. Miami-Dade State Attorney Fernandez Rundle’s office then announced the charges. Three counts of misdemeanor careless boating. Careless is a lesser charge than reckless and typically applies to an operator who has been inattentive at the wheel.

Based on the conclusions of the FWC report, Rundle’s office said that was the maximum they could charge Pino under Florida law. Some legal experts agreed, telling the The Herald last year that less serious charges aren’t unusual in such cases, given the facts laid out in the FWC report.

Pino’s attorneys Andrew Mescolotto and Howard Srebnick did not return emailed requests for comment on the Key West case. But in August after the FWC final report was released, Pino issued a statement expressing sorrow for the victims

“George and Cecilia Pino are devastated by the passing of Lucy and the serious injuries to Katy and others,” Mescolotto wrote. “The Pinos have already pledged their life savings to compensate and provide medical support for everyone affected by this horrible accident. They continue to pray every day for each person and family that was involved.”

The statement also highlighted the findings that alcohol was not a factor and reiterated a statement Pino told officers — that a larger oncoming boat caused him to lose control of his vessel. FWC investigators, however, stressed in their report that no witnesses, including all who were on Pino’s vessel, saw another boat in the channel in the moments leading up to the crash.

The Fernandezes still believe Pino’s connections and influence helped sway the investigation — and they say the Key West case isn’t the only example. In January, a Miami boater was sentenced to four years in federal court for his role in the deaths of two people in a Bimini boating crash. The investigation did not involve the FWC but the prison time still resonated with them,

In an email to the Herald, they wrote: “We now have no other choice but to conclude that Mr. Pino has been, and continues to be, treated differently.”

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Dragger Sinks After Collision With Sportfishing Yacht

A 40-foot commercial fishing boat sank on Saturday morning after a yacht of about the same size crashed into it in dense fog not far from the mouth of Montauk Inlet, about a quarter-mile from land.

According to a Coast Guard spokesman, Officer Collin Reichelt, the yacht, ironically named the Chaos, was being driven negligently when it collided with the dragger. The report of the crash came in at around 6:30 a.m. Visibility was just under 100 feet, the Coast Guard reported.

Petrel, the fishing boat, had two on board, the captain and another man. The yacht had three passengers including the operator. None of their names were immediately released.

Petrel's captain acted quickly and was able to jump off the boat along with his passenger in time to avoid being pulled under. On Monday, his daughter, Kelly Mallinson, described the crash on Facebook.

"My dad, a skilled captain and commercial fisherman of nearly 50 years, was in an accident this weekend with an extremely reckless driver of a sport fishing yacht," she wrote. "In shock, my dad knew to get off the quickly sinking boat to avoid being dragged under, and they both safely swam away from the boat."

The Petrel sank 70 feet to the bottom within minutes of the collision. Her captain suffered a shoulder injury and was taken to Stony Brook Southampton Hospital, which released him after treatment. No other injuries were reported.

East Hampton Town police charged the operator of the Chaos with reckless operation of a vessel, a misdemeanor, though detectives said on Tuesday that they are continuing to look into the cause of the crash. The dragger's owner is said to be working with a salvage company to recover the boat.

This story has been updated since it was first published.

On the Police Logs 03.14.24

Police were called Friday afternoon to investigate a report that people were camping illegally in the Grace Estate Preserve. They came upon three men from Nassau County who’d put up a tent and built a campfire. Police told them to put out the fire, then issued a ticket for open burning and directed them to leave immediately.

On the Police Logs 03.07.24

On Feb. 26, a few minutes before midnight, an officer patrolling Sag Harbor's Long Wharf discovered that a car had smashed into a wooden guardrail. Surveillance camera footage revealed that the damage was caused by a driver who, the very next day but in an unrelated incident, was charged with driving while intoxicated.

Grand Larceny Is Charged

A 28-year-old Amagansett woman was arrested Friday afternoon on felony charges of larceny, stemming from a Feb. 15 incident at the M&T Bank branch on Newtown Lane in East Hampton Village.

New Bill Aims to Stop Drugged Driving

The New York State Assembly is considering the Deadly Driving Bill, which would change the definition of “drug” in state law to include “any substance or combination of substances that impair, to any extent, physical or mental abilities,” making it easier to prosecute drug-related driving violations. Right now, if police cannot ascertain just what substance is involved, they may not be able to make an arrest in the first place.

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Watch: Terrifying moment speedboat crashes into small fishing boat and sending fishermen overboard

This is is the terrifying moment a group of fishermen desperately jumped overboard when a speedboat came hurtling towards their boat.

Shocking footage caught on a GoPro camera shows Bryan Maess, Christopher McMahon and Roni Durham casually fishing when the speedboat comes rushing towards them.

The trio wave their hands to try and get the boat to stop or swerve out of the way, with one passenger screaming “Oh my God”.

Realising a crash was inevitable, they all end up jumping into the icy waters of the Columbia River in Oregon.

Seconds later, the speedboat crashes into the 20-foot fishing boat, causing it serious damage.

Maess, 47, an off-duty police officer in Hermiston and part-time salmon fisherman, says he suffered injuries to his ankle, leg and arm during the incident, while McMahon, 46, and Durham, 57, also suffered injuries.

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Marlin Lee Larsen, 75, who was driving the speedboat, uses a motorised scooter on land and told investigators he crashed because he was unable to see the other boat from his sitting position.

However, one of Maess’ passengers claims he saw Larsen using his mobile phone while driving the speedboat – something he denies.

Maess is now suing Larsen for £268,000, claiming he has been left with vision problems and a knee brace six months after the accident.

Larsen has been charged with reckless operation, three counts of reckless endangerment and three counts of fourth-degree assault.

He has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

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Video shows stolen yacht crashing into multiple other boats in California

A boat thief swiped a yacht in Southern California on Thursday, authorities said, then collided with multiple other boats in the harbor.

Joel Siam, 38, was booked on suspicion of grand theft of a boat and possession of a stolen boat and was being being held on $3 million bail, Orange County jail records showed on Friday.

Dispatchers on Thursday had originally been notified at 9:21 a.m. PST about an act of vandalism along the docks near 1200 W. Coast Highway before another call came, reporting a stolen boat a half-mile away, Newport Beach police spokeswoman Heather Rangel said.

"It was determined that the suspect was the same person for each incident," Rangel said. "The suspect stole the boat and proceeded to leave the area when he collided with multiple boats in the bay."

The suspect, from San Diego, was captured by the Orange County Sheriff's Harbor Patrol, police said.

Siam struck at least three vessels and investigators didn't have an immediate price tag on the damage, sheriff's spokeswoman Carrie Braun said Friday.

It wasn’t immediately clear what the suspect’s motive might have been.

“We do not believe the suspect knew the boat owner,” of the craft he allegedly stole, Braun added.

As Siam first started operating the luxury vessel, it caught the attention of real estate broker Dylan Eckardt, who was at his new office right on the docks.

“That was crazy,” Eckardt told NBC News on Friday. “I was on the phone and I heard the boat back out and when the boat backed out I started videoing.”

A man was accused of stealing this yacht in Newport Beach and crashing it into several others before being taken into custody on March 10, 2022.

Eckardt, who grew upon the far east end of Long Island, initially believed there was a mechanical problem with the yacht.

“I grew up on Montauk, I know a lot about boats and I was like, ‘What the hell was going on?’ I thought the engine was stuck, like the throttle (was stuck),” he said. “Then I saw the guy up top taking his shirt off, I knew there was a situation.”

Siam is due to appear in court on Monday, jail records showed. It wasn’t immediately clear if he had hired an attorney been assigned one by Friday, a spokeswoman for the Orange County DA said.

David K. Li is a senior breaking news reporter for NBC News Digital.

Virginia Beach yacht, 75-foot, catches fire, 3 people on board rescued in dramatic fashion

The yacht was towed by the virginia beach fire department, assisting the coast guard, to fort story, a military base on virginia beach..

A 75-foot-yacht off the coast of Cape Henry in Virginia Beach caught fire, forcing its occupants to jump into the water, the U.S. Coast Guard said.

Mayday call for "a recreational vessel on fire" came in around 3:30 a.m. Friday, a spokesperson of the U.S. Coast Guard told USA TODAY over the phone.

Motor Vessel Savage, a 75-foot-yacht, was on fire about two miles off the coast of Cape Henry.

Three adults who were on board the vessel jumped into the water and were later rescued by a pilot boat, said U.S.C.G.

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Three people aboard jumped into waters, rescued from burning yacht

"All three were picked up within approximately 10 minutes by pilot boats and no injuries are recorded," said the U.S.C.G.

The Virginia Beach Fire Department, assisting the Coast Guard, towed the boat to Fort Story, a military base on Virginia Beach, where it is still smoldering.

The fire department is fighting the fire from the shore, said the spokesperson, adding that the vessel is against a rock. The U.S.C.G. is also monitoring the situation, with a boat on scene.

The cause of the fire has not yet been determined, said the U.S.C.G.

Saman Shafiq is a trending news reporter for USA TODAY. Reach her at [email protected] and follow her on X, formerly Twitter, at @saman_shafiq7.

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Tragedy that left 5 dead or missing puts spotlight on safety in Alaska charter fishing industry

Homes in downtown overlook the harbor, in Sitka, Alaska, on March 26, 2008. (AP Photo/Chris Miller, File)

Morgan Robidou posed next to the bright aluminum hull of his prized new vessel, a 30-foot fishing boat that he could use to take friends, family or tourists out after salmon or halibut in the bountiful waters of southeast Alaska.

“Official boat owner,” he wrote when he posted the photo on social media last October, to congratulatory responses from friends.

Seven months later, the boat he named Awakin — “like a boat waking someone” — was found partially submerged off an island west of Sitka in a tragedy that left Robidou and four customers dead or lost at sea and put a spotlight on the safety of the region’s vibrant charter fishing industry.

“I can’t remember when we had any kind of fatality in our industry, so this is shocking for us,” said Richard Yamada, who sits on various industry boards, including the Alaska Charter Association and the Southeast Alaska Guides Organization. “We’re really curious to see what happened.”

Robidou, 32, was working with Kingfisher Charters, which operates a lodge in Sitka, a small port city on Baranof Island with a backdrop of a stunning volcanic mountain. The region is a legendary fishing destination, with myriad inlets, islands, bays and passages that can offer shelter from wind and waves when the open sea is too rough.

“Sitka is nestled right along the Alaska coast, with the ocean on one side, and the Inside Passage on the other,” Kingfisher says on its website. “On days where the weather cooperates we generally head offshore into the ocean, but on days where the winds and waves make the journey less desirable we go fishing in the protected bays and passageways of the inside waters.”

Over Memorial Day weekend, eight members of the Tyau family, from Los Angeles and Hawaii, traveled to Sitka for a three-day trip with Kingfisher, where rates typically run $3,295 per person, according to prices listed on the company’s website.

The Tyau clan chartered two boats — the Awakin, captained by Robidou, and another called the Pockets — and set out Friday amid rough conditions. Michael Tyau said his sisters and wife spent the day’s voyage seasick in the two boats’ cabins and skipped Saturday’s trip to recover on land.

In this photo provided by Vernon Tyau, Jarek Agcaoili, left, with his mother Danielle, sister Jessika and father Maury Agcaoili pose in May 2023, at Jessika's high school graduation in Hawaii. Danielle and Maury Agcaoili were among boaters who died Sunday, May 28, 2023, near Sitka, Alaska, when a fishing vessel ran into trouble in rough seas. (Vernon Tyau via AP)

When Sunday dawned, their last vacation day before Monday flights home, the women rejoined the boats, which headed to different fishing spots. Aboard the Awakin were Tyau’s sisters , Brandi Tyau, 56, and Danielle Agcaoili, 53, along with Brandi’s partner, Robert Solis, 61, and Danielle’s husband, Maury Agcaoili, 57.

Michael Tyau, who was aboard the Pockets, said the conditions where that boat fished that day did not concern him. He “in no way felt in jeopardy, like this wasn’t safe for us to fish in,” he said.

It’s unclear where the Awakin went or what might have happened to it, but it was last seen near Sitka on Sunday afternoon and was found partially submerged around 7 p.m. Sunday off Low Island, about 10 miles west of Sitka, the Coast Guard has said.

Efforts to recover the vessel have been hampered by strong winds and rough seas, including significant tidal currents that hindered the work of divers, but a salvage company was expected to try again Saturday, conditions permitting.

The sisters were found inside the cabin, and Maury Agcaoili’s body was discovered near the boat. Solis and Robidou have not been found, and the Coast Guard called off its search late Monday after covering 825 square miles in more than 20 hours.

There was a small craft advisory in the area where the boat was found Sunday, warning mariners of roughly 17 mph winds and 10-foot seas with rain during the day and slightly stronger winds and similarly high seas later in the day, said Pete Boyd, a National Weather Service meteorologist.

In addition to potentially rough seas and high winds, the area features rocks that can seemingly rise even from deep water, posing hazards to boats.

Yamada speculated that Robidou apparently did not have time to make a mayday call, suggesting that a rogue wave could have suddenly flipped the boat.

Kingfisher owner Seth Bone has been in the business for at least 40 years and is well-known and reputable, Yamada said.

A harbor seal pokes its head up near Low Island in Sitka Sound, Thursday, June 1, 2023. The area was the site of a fatal charter boat accident, Sunday, May 28. (James Poulson/The Daily Sitka Sentinel via AP)

Kingfisher Charters has declined to respond to questions outside a statement released Wednesday saying the company is “devastated by the loss of the guests and captain of the Awakin” and is fully cooperating with an investigation it hopes “furnishes answers to the questions as to how it occurred.”

Yamada owns a lodge in Juneau, Alaska. Some businesses, like his, own all their fishing vessels, while others, like Kingfisher, contract with independent boat owners.

It takes serious effort to get a captain’s license, Yamada said, and the process involves an exam covering navigation and safety as well as 360 days of experience on the water. Because you can’t be on the water year-round in Alaska, it usually takes three summers, he said.

“It’s not as if you just come off the street and get a license,” Yamada said. “It takes some time.”

A license has to be renewed every five years.

Given the vast numbers of people who go out on charter boats in Southeast Alaska every late spring to fall, the lack of prior accidents in the industry indicates it has a good safety record, said Michael Schneider, an Anchorage personal injury attorney who litigates fishing accidents.

That said, he added: “People need to know going in that it’s the real deal up here. The water is deep and cold and bad things can happen. And when they do, they typically happen very, very quickly.”

FILE - This January 2019 photo shows Sitka Channel in Sitka, Alaska, the home port for a charter fishing boat that sank in nearby waters killing three and leaving two lost at sea in late May 2023. The tragedy has put a spotlight on the safety of southeast Alaska's vibrant charter fishing industry and on the port town of Sitka, where charter operators charge thousands of dollars per person for guided fishing trips. (James Poulson/The Daily Sitka Sentinel via AP, File)

Robidou had been fishing for several years, according to posts and comments on his social media pages. One said he had previously captained a different boat for Kingfisher Charters. Robidou’s family did not respond to messages seeking comment.

Robidou was “the nicest, quietest, friendliest young fellow you’ve ever seen,” said Thad Poulson, editor of the Daily Sitka Sentinel newspaper, where Robidou once worked as a press operator.

Bohrer reported from Juneau and Kelleher reported from Honolulu. Stefanie Dazio in Los Angeles contributed.

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Fisherman sues after dramatic boat crash on Columbia River

CLATSOP COUNTY, Ore. — A fisherman who had to jump into the Columbia River to avoid being crushed in a boating crash has filed a lawsuit against the person who was captaining the other vessel.

Clatsop County Sheriff's Department said that the motor boat driver, Marlin Lee Larsen, 75, was sitting down while driving his boat and that he couldn't see over the dash when he crashed into the fishing boat that Bryan Maess, 47, and two other friends were on, Oregon Live reported .

>> Read more trending news

A GoPro camera captured the crash that happened in August. Christopher McMahon, one of Maess’ friends, waved his arms and yelled, trying to get Larsen’s attention. When that didn’t work, and it was apparent that the larger boat was going to crash into theirs, Maess, McMahon and Roni Durham jumped into the water.

Investigators found that if they had not abandoned ship, the friends would have been injured or even killed.

Maess, however, was injured by jumping into the water and being hit by debris, including injuries to his ankle, leg and arm, vision problems and headaches. He still wears a knee brace, according to the lawsuit, in which he is suing Larsen for $372,500, Oregon Live reported .

McMahon and Durham have not filed suit yet, but have started the process. Both are said to have suffered hypothermia and cuts. Durham claims she has suffered psychological trauma and hasn’t been on a boat since the accident.

Larsen’s son-in-law was on the boat driven by Larsen at the time of the crash. He told police that he warned Larsen to pay attention and that he had seen his father-in-law on his cellphone in the past, including the day of, but not at the time of, the accident.

Larsen told Oregon Live that he wasn't using the device while he was driving the boat and that the allegations were "fake news." He also said that the lawsuit, in his opinion, was not necessary since the other people were not hurt badly.

Larsen also has a criminal case filed against him, in which he has pleaded not guilty to reckless operation of a boat, fourth-degree assault and recklessly endangering the lives of others, Oregon Live reported .

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Montana billionaire's 332 ft yacht crashes into fishing boat killing one man and injuring another, leading to investigation from U.S. Coast Guard

Dennis Washington owns the boat which collided with the commercial trawler
There were 29 passengers aboard the 332 ft Attessa IV and the fishing boat
Richard Neff, 66, was airlifted from the Prowler to hospital but later died
There has since been an investigation opened into the crash by the Coast Guard

By Charlotte Dean For Mailonline

Published: 09:01 EDT, 14 December 2018 | Updated: 11:17 EDT, 1 November 2020

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A fatal crash involving Montana billionaire Dennis Washington's 332 ft yacht and a fishing boat which killed a man is being investigated by the U.S. Coast Guard.

The collision between Washington's The Attessa IV, worth an estimated $150 million, and the commercial vessel also injured another man who was on board the fishing boat.

The Attessa collided with the Prowler off the coast of Imperial Beach, San Diego on October 26 and the Coast Guard was called to the scene of the smash at 7.50pm, USA Today reports.

According to officials across the two boats there were 29 people on board and Washington, founder of the Washington Cos. and owner of Montana Rail Link, was not on the boat at the time of the crash.

A fatal crash involving Montana billionaire Dennis Washington's 332 ft yacht (pictured) and a fishing boat which killed a man is being investigated by the U.S. Coast Guard

Richard Neff, 66, from San Clemente in California, who was retired following a 40 year career in construction, was airlifted from the Prowler to San Diego hospital but later died after suffering head trauma.

Two other victims of the collision were injured on board the Prowler during the crash.

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The boat was extensively damaged on the right had side, and its captain waited aboard the vessel until commercial salvage arrived.

The Coast Guard cutter Sea Otter, the United States' Marine Protector class, stayed with the captain until this point.

Following the collision The Attessa sailed back to San Diego with its 10 passengers, the Coat Guard reported.

Washington (pictured) has previously been listed by Forbes magazine as Montana's richest person

According to officials across the two boats there were 29 people on board and Washington, founder of the Washington Cos. and owner of Montana Rail Link, was not on the boat at the time of the crash

It has been suggested by officials that the investigation into the boat crash could take between six months and a year to finalize.

Washington Cos. Executive Vice President Tim McHugh said that they were 'cooperating fully' with the investigation but were waiting on more details of the crash to better understand what occurred.

Washington has previously been listed by Forbes magazine as Montana's richest person, estimating that his net worth is $5.9 billion.

He and his wife, Phyllis, have put around $840 million into their foundation over the years, which has issued around $300 milion to almost 1,000 organizations.

The Attessa, previously dubbed Evergreen, was sold to Washington in 2007 proceeding three and a half years of renovation.

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