The death of Bob Post brought to the surface a loophole in state boating safety laws.
At the time of the August 2008 crash, leaving the scene of a fatal boating accident was only a minor violation in New Jersey—an aberration that shocked and angered Post’s family and friends. After all, leaving the scene of a fatal motor vehicle accident is a second-degree felony.
Three months after the tragedy on Barnegat Bay, Republicans James W. Holzapfel (Toms River) and David W. Wolfe (Brick) introduced an Assembly bill to toughen marine-safety rules. The bill didn’t go anywhere for four years. It needed something or someone to move it along.
It was with heavy hearts that a group of Shore boaters, along with friends of the Post family and Bob Post’s widow, Bonnie, formed an advocacy group, Boaters Outraged at Leaving the Scene, or BOLTS, to lobby for the bill.
John Sullivan, who knew the Posts through the Bay Head Yacht Club, spearheaded the group. Bonnie Post threw herself into the fray, testifying in favor of the bill before Senate and Assembly subcommittees. The bill subsequently won unanimous approval in both houses.
This past July, with Bonnie Post and her supporters looking on, Governor Chris Christie signed the legislation—S-846—in time for the 2014 boating season. The bill, modeled after the motor vehicle law, raises the penalty of leaving the scene of a serious or fatal inland boating accident to a second-degree offense, punishable by a prison term of 5 to 10 years, up to $150,000 in fines, or both.
According to state data, six to eight boating-related fatalities occur every year in New Jersey.
Holzapfel, now a member of the state Senate, says Anthony DiGilio would most likely have been charged with leaving the scene of a boating accident—in addition to the other charges levelled against him by the state—had the law been in place at the time of his collision with Bob Post.
The new law, says Holzapfel, requires boat operators to stop and assist others if they are involved in a marine accident of any kind. The law does not require the driver of a vessel to know the extent of injuries they may or may not have caused.
“You don’t have to know that someone died or someone was seriously injured,” says Holzapfel. “You can’t defend [yourself] by saying ‘Well I didn’t know they were seriously injured.’ Whether or not you’re operating your vessel in a legitimate fashion, you’re obligated to stay.”
Holzapfel says the law includes a unique provision under which an individual would be sentenced “in separate or apart from other convictions”—meaning the penalty for leaving the scene should run consecutively with other serious offenses.
For Bonnie Post, passage of the bill is the silver lining of an otherwise tragic event.