Woman awarded $30 million for brain injury suffered in boat accident

A 27-year-old woman from Chico, California was recently awarded over $30 million by a Butte County jury after she suffered a serious brain injury during a boating accident. The jury cited the boat’s manufacturing company, MasterCraft Boat Co., as liable for the woman’s injuries.

The boating accident occurred in 2006 when the woman and her friends were riding on MasterCraft’s X45 boat. The boat, advertised as able to hold up to 18 people, was occupied by 19 people, many of whom were sitting in the boat’s bow. When the boat’s driver made a turn at 5 miles per hour, the boat’s bow became submerged in water and swept the woman and her friend into the boat’s spinning propeller. The woman suffered lacerations to her face and skull and lost her left eye, as well as part of her frontal lobe.

The jury found that MasterCraft was negligent in its design of the X45 boat and did not test the boat prior to advertising to customers that it could hold up to 18 people. The jury awarded the woman $30 million for past and future medical expenses, as well as emotional and physical trauma. The jury is also asking that the X45 boat be recalled.

If you or someone you love has suffered a traumatic brain injury because of a company’s negligent design of a product, please contact the Minnesota traumatic brain injury lawyers of Robert Wilson & Associates at (612) 334-3444.