I-Team: Drivers with histories of DUIs involved in dozens of fatal alcohol-related boat crashes
No boater's license in Florida may be cause
By: Adam Walser

Video and Graphs: http://www.abcactionnews.com/news/lo...d-boat-crashes

RIVERVIEW, Fla. - In Florida, laws keep drunk drivers off our highways by taking away their licenses.

But what keeps those same people from operating boats?

As the I-Team discovered, currently, there’s not much.

“As it escalated, a couple of more beers, I was like ‘This is really bad. We need to go home,’” said Mariah Perez-Gonzalez, describing terrifying moments on the Fourth of July aboard a boat when she was seven months pregnant. “The boat hit the mangroves and kind of spun into them."

The boat driver died.

“We got a water accident. We're at a dock,” came the frantic 911 call on the night Martin County firefighter Chip O’Hara was killed in 2005.

A drunk boater ran over him while he was riding on a jet ski.

“They said he bled to death because of the injury to his leg,” said Carolyn Clarke, his mother.

Both deaths were caused by impaired Florida boaters with histories of drunk driving.

The I-Team has uncovered that last year nearly 50 percent of people involved in fatal boating accidents had a DUI history, and one out of 10 fatal boat crashes involved someone who was not allowed to drive a car at the time because of prior DUIs.

“According to Coast Guard statistics, alcohol use was the leading contributing factor in boating fatalities in 2013,” U.S. Coast Guard Lt. Holly Deal said.

The I-Team discovered dozens of Florida boaters have been arrested for driving under the influence and have also been involved in BUI incidents.

Sean McCarthy, Perez-Gonzalez’s neighbor who was driving the boat that day, was among them.

He had been convicted of five prior DUIs and a just-released report we obtained shows McCarthy had a blood alcohol level of three times the legal limit at the time of the crash.

Perez-Gonzalez said she didn’t have any idea he had been drinking before she and her husband got on board the boat for what was supposed to be a short ride to find a good fishing spot.

“You can get DUIs and lose your driver's license, but ‘I'm still gonna go out on a boat and party and drink.’ It's not good. They need to have better laws for that,” Perez-Gonzalez said.

Wally Rothe, who was convicted of BUI in O'Hara's death, had two prior DUI convictions.

“It makes no sense to me. You shouldn't have the right if you've lost it to drive a car,” Clarke said.

Sixty-two people died in Florida boat crashes last year and more than 300 boaters were charged with BUI.

But none lost their boating license, because there's no such thing.

“If you get a DUI, I think it should affect your boating privileges. Or if you get a BUI, it should affect your driver's license,” Perez-Gonzalez said.

“There are no rules connecting the two,” said attorney Gerald Rhoden, who defends clients charged with BUIs and DUIs.

He doesn't believe what happens on the water should be tied to driving privileges.

“To connect the dots between all crimes would be to rule out everything,” he said.

“I think a lot of people in Florida think that it's different on a boat. I know I never really gave it much thought until my accident,” Perez-Gonzalez said.

In response to our investigation, a lawmaker is proposing legislation that links boating and driving privileges, a measure that would require mandatory training for boaters.