A Louisiana man suffered paralysis from the chest down as the result of a drunken boater on the Diversion Canal, according to a story at wafb.com. Officials with the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries (LDWF) said the victim was a passenger in a boat driven by a 41-year-old Baton Rouge man. The driver’s two kids and his wife were also in the boat when the driver crashed it into a pier on the canal.
Doctors said the victim is paralyzed from the chest down. He is currently at a spinal cord rehab facility in Atlanta. As for the boat driver, LDWF officials said he was intoxicated at the time of the boat crash. Authorities charged the driver with driving a boat while intoxicated, reckless operation of a moving vessel and four counts of first-degree negligent injury.
What makes matters even worse for the paralysis victim is that he was a cheerleading coach at LSU. His condition took away his way of earning a living, in addition to altering his way of life forever. What some boaters fail to realize is that alcohol impairment occurs quicker on a boat. The motion from the waves increases alcohol’s effect on reaction time and balance.
Harrell & Nowak, L.L.C. – New Orleans injury attorneys