Questions aren't confrontational any more than news reports are accurate.
Damage (especially one quick internet photo) doesn't prove speed unless you are a trained boat accident investigator who has done the forensic calculations.
Alcohol may have been involved but not necessarily a contributing factor.
Just hoping that people on my jury aren't so quick to decide...just MY thoughts....
Wifey B: Vote psneeld guilty. Sentence to have to read more posts.....hehe. Not sure what I voted him guilty of. Just guilty, one woman jury. Oh heck, I'll show him mercy. Not guilty by reason of insanity. You're a free man. Hope you know I mean all this completely in jest. Your points are valid but then opinions are part of the forum life. Even wrong ones.
Seriously, we don't know all the facts but we know one boat sitting, one moving. One sitting highly unlikely to have suddenly leaped into path of one moving. I.e., great likelihood wreck was fault of one moving. Enough to cast reasonable suspicion although not enough to convict at this point, but as he said, this isn't a jury. Report said anchored vessel was properly lighted but we don't know for sure.
And we don't know if alcohol was involved. We also know there are many many tragedies on the water and a tremendous percentage of those involve alcohol. While that is not conclusive evidence to know it's involvement in this accident (sure that info will be forthcoming), it is a very real issue and a danger to all who use the waters. And that's a broader subject.
In the late 1980's, Chattanooga TN. Returning from Riverfest via Lake Chickamauga Lock, police gave breathalyzer tests and arrested and/or ticketed something in the area of 400 operators. At one time, one night, one place. Then they found out their was no applicable law for operating a boat under the influence and a breathalyzer application. That has been changed in TN. But still the boating community (and frankly the lakes and rivers are worse than coastal) tends to look too leniently toward those operating boats while under the influence. To many people boating and drinking seem to go together. When it's in the order of boating, then drinking, that's one thing. But it's a serious issue. We have occasional parties. We even occasionally sip champagne onboard, even lots of it. But never do we operate out boat or allow anyone to do so if we've had a drink. In fact, we follow commercial rules with slight modifications. No drinks within the previous 10 hours and less than .01 on a breathalyzer.
I think also even if moving boater was totally at fault, this is warning to all anchoring. There may be speeding or drunk or otherwise bad boaters. Careful where you anchor. And ILLUMINATE. Don't just follow the letter of the law. What if that anchor light went out? Make it obvious. Make it so no one will miss seeing it, even someone drunk. Had the moving boat been bigger then there easily could have been lives lost on the anchored boat and saying, we met the legal requirements, would be no consolation.