While riding as a passenger on a Bombardier Sea Doo, 23 year old Ardelle Curran of Flower Mound, Texas fell off the back of the PWC and landed directly in the blast of water emanating from the PWC’s jet thrust propulsion system. The force of the jet blast penetrated her lower body orifices causing massive, mutilating injuries. Ms. Curran was immediately life flighted to a nearby hospital where she underwent life saving medical intervention.
The accident occurred on Forest Lake in Forest Lake, Minnesota during a family reunion.
These horrific accidents will continue to occur—and with increased frequency due to increasingly powerful machines—so long as Bombardier, Yamaha and Kawasaki refuse to implement design modifications into their personal watercrafts that would prevent passengers from falling directly backwards into the path of the jet thrust. There is a mountain of evidence establishing Bombardier’s knowledge of the existence of safer alternative designs which would prevent injuries such as those sustained by Ms. Curran, including BRP owned patents of modified seat designs and handholds with the stated purpose of reducing the risk of rearward ejections.
Mazzola Law Firm will soon be filing suit against Bombardier Recreational Products (“BRP”) in Washington County, Minnesota.
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