30.67 Accidents and accident reports.

(1) Duty to render aid. Insofar as the operator of a boat can do so without serious danger to the operator's boat or to persons on board, the operator of a boat involved in a boating accident shall stop the operator's boat and render to other persons affected thereby such assistance as may be practicable and necessary to save them from or minimize any danger caused by the accident. The operator shall give the operator's name and address and identification of the operator's boat to any person injured and to the owner of any property damaged in the accident.

(2) Duty to report.

(a) If a boating accident results in death or injury to any person, the disappearance of any person from a boat under circumstances indicating death or injury, or property damage, every operator of a boat involved in an accident shall, without delay and by the quickest means available, give notice of the accident to a conservation warden or local law enforcement officer and shall file a written report with the department on the form prescribed by it. The department shall promulgate rules necessary to keep accident reporting requirements in conformity with rules adopted by the U.S. coast guard.

(b) If the operator of a boat is physically incapable of making the report required by this subsection and there was another occupant in the boat at the time of the accident capable of making the report the other occupant shall make such report.

(3) Terms defined. In this section:

(a) “Boating accident" means a collision, accident or other casualty involving a boat.

(b) “Injury" means any injury of a physical nature resulting in medical treatment, disability for more than 24 hours or loss of consciousness.

(c) “Total property damage" means the sum total cost of putting the property damaged in the condition it was in before the accident, if repair thereof is practical, and if not practical, the sum total cost of replacing the property.

(4) Reports confidential. No report required by this section to be filed with the department shall be used as evidence in any trial, civil or criminal, arising out of an accident, except that the department shall furnish upon demand of any person who has or claims to have made such a report, or upon demand of any court, a certificate showing that a specified accident report has or has not been made to the department solely to prove a compliance or a failure to comply with the requirement that such a report be made.

(5) Transmittal of information to federal and state authorities. If any request for information available on the basis of reports filed pursuant to this section is duly made by an authorized official or agency of the U.S. government or of the state which registered the boat involved or the state where the accident occurred, the department shall compile and furnish such information in accordance with such request.

(6) Coroners and medical examiners to report; require blood specimen.

(a) Every coroner or medical examiner shall on or before the 10th day of each month report in writing to the department the death of any person within his or her jurisdiction during the preceding calendar month as the result of an accident involving a boat and the circumstances of the accident.

(b) In cases of death involving a boat in which the person died within 6 hours of the time of the accident, a blood specimen of at least 10 cc. shall be withdrawn from the body of the decedent within 12 hours after his or her death, by the coroner or medical examiner or by a physician so designated by the coroner or medical examiner or by a qualified person at the direction of the physician. All funeral directors, as defined in s. 445.01 (5), shall obtain a release from the coroner or medical examiner prior to proceeding with embalming any body coming under the scope of this section. The blood so drawn shall be forwarded to a laboratory approved by the state health officer for analysis of the alcoholic content of the blood specimen. The coroner or medical examiner causing the blood to be withdrawn shall be notified of the results of each analysis made and shall forward the results of each analysis to the state health officer. The state health officer shall keep a record of all examinations to be used for statistical purposes only. The cumulative results of the examinations, without identifying the individuals involved, shall be disseminated and made public by the state health officer. The department shall reimburse coroners and medical examiners for the costs incurred in submitting reports and taking blood specimens and laboratories for the costs incurred in analyzing blood specimens under this section.

History: 1973 c. 302; 1979 c. 275; 1989 a. 359; 1991 a. 316; 2005 a. 266.