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On July 2, 2018, Tessa Fleming of Ridgewood, New York was riding as a passenger on a 2017 Bombardier Sea Doo when she suddenly and unexpectedly slid off the back of the seat. Unfortunately, and through no fault of her own, she sustained massive, debilitating injuries when she landed, with legs abducted, near the personal watercraft’s jet drive propulsion system.

The accident occurred near the Gateway National Recreation Area at the end of the Rockaways in Queens, NY.

Tessa is being represented by Mazzola Law Firm in collaboration with Michael Ronemus of Ronemus & Vilensky, LLP.

On July 1, 2017, 22 year old Gianna Silvanio of Sewell, New Jersey was riding as a passenger on a 2016 Yamaha Waverunner in the seat position closest to the rear of the watercraft.  The operator had begun to gradually accelerate the waverunner when Gianna slid off the seat, falling directly behind the waverunner in close proximity to the jet drive propulsion system.  Upon landing in the water, the powerful blast from the jet drive penetrated her lower body orifices, causing mutilating injuries to her vagina, anus, perineum, rectum, colon, and other internal organs.

Ms. Silvanio is being represented by the Mazzola Law Firm in collaboration with Ernest Alvino of Hoffman DiMuzio.

On May 29, 2016, while riding as a passenger on a Bombardier Sea Doo, 19 year old Hailey Halbert of Sulphur Springs, Texas fell off the back of the PWC and landed directly in the blast of water from the PWC’s jet thrust propulsion system.

She was immediately life flighted to a nearby hospital where she underwent life saving medical intervention. Halbert, like too many others, sustained injuries that required the surgical implantation of a colostomy bag.

Hailey Halbert is being represented by the Mazzola Law Firm in collaboration with Dana Kirk of the Kirk Law Firm, PLLC.

Those interested in following the Halbert v. BRP matter (or any matter referenced on this website) can check back for blog updates documenting case developments or simply subscribe to the RSS feed.

Over the past several months, alarming numbers of women (and/or their parents) have contacted Mazzola Law Firm with increasing frequency, all seeking answers, and all wondering how it is that they ended up in the intensive care unit, fighting for their lives (or the lives of their loved ones). From frantic parents fearing for their child’s life should the infectious disease doctor not be able to stop the spreading infection due to sepsis from a severely damaged colon…to traumatized young women wondering if they will ever be able to bear children…to questions of whether they will ever regain normal bowel functions without the assistance of a colostomy.

The bottom line is, PWC orifice injuries are going to continue to happen until the folks at Yamaha, Kawasaki and Bombardier stop trying to pass the blame onto the victims, and design the defect out of their PWC by placing a raised seat on the back of the PWC that would divert a falling passenger away from the jet blast. It’s a simple fix.

Over the coming months, Mazzola Law Firm will be teaming up with top product liability attorneys across America to see to it that these women receive justice for what they have been through, and that the manufacturers of these personal watercraft, Kawasaki, Yamaha and Bombardier, are held accountable for their actions/inactions.

Additional blog posts over the coming weeks will address each new matter individually.

On August 19, 2015, 12 year old Lexis L. of Little Falls, New York sustained severe perianal lacerations when she fell off the back of personal watercraft and landed in the path of the jet thrust from the PWC’s jet propulsion system. Her father was operating the 1994 Polaris SL 650 at the time of the incident, which occurred on Hinckley Reservoir in Hinckley, New York.

Those interested in following this matter (or any matter referenced on this website) can check back for blog updates documenting case developments or simply subscribe to the RSS feed.

On May 26, 2017, Mazzola Law Firm, in collaboration with Baker and Zimmerman, P.A., filed the matter of Ravazzani v. Yamaha Motor Corporation, USA in the District Court for Miami-Dade County, Florida. For those interested, the following press release includes more details about the case as well as a link to the complaint:

http://www.prweb.com/releases/2017/06/prweb14391152.htm

I came across this article last night and found it to be well-written:

http://www.superyachtnews.com/opinion/do-pwcs-do-enough-to-mitigate-risk

On June 14, 2016, 29 year old Clara Ravazzani sustained massive, internal orifice injuries when she fell off the back of a Yamaha Waverunner and came into contact with the jet thrust from the watercraft’s jet propulsion system. At the time of the incident, Ravazzani was riding behind her boyfriend Pete Rosa’s daughter, on a 3-seater waverunner that Rosa was driving.

Ravazzani’s injuries required the surgical implantation of a colostomy bag and were so severe that she nearly succumbed due to blood loss. Without Rosa’s quick intervention and insistence that she be life-flighted to Miami’s Ryder Trauma Center, Ravazzani’s injuries would likely have proved fatal.  The incident occurred in northern Biscayne Bay, near Boca Chita Key. 

Clara Ravazzani is being represented by the Mazzola Law Firm, PLLC.

Those interested in following the Ravazzani v. Yamaha matter (or any matter referenced on this website) can check back for blog updates documenting case developments or simply subscribe to the RSS feed.

On August 30, 2016, 22 year old Cat Grefsrud of Pelican Rapids, Minnesota sustained massive, internal orifice injuries when she fell off the back of a Kawasaki Jet Ski. The accident happened shortly after she and two friends decided to go for a jet ski ride on Lake Lizzie near her home. Like too many others, Ms. Grefsrud’s injuries required life-saving surgical intervention and the implantation of a colostomy bag.

Ms. Grefsrud is being represented by the Mazzola Law Firm, PLLC.

Those interested in following the Grefsrud v. Kawasaki matter (or any matter referenced on this website) can check back for blog updates documenting case developments or simply subscribe to the RSS feed.

On June 27, 2020, a 14-year-old young lady from Hull, Iowa sustained massive, internal orifice injuries when she fell off the back of a Sea-Doo personal watercraft and came into contact with the blast of water emanating from the watercraft’s jet thrust propulsion system. At the time of the accident, SV was riding as the rearmost passenger on her uncle’s 2007 Bombardier Sea-Doo GTX.

Shortly after the accident, which occurred on Lake Okoboji in Northwest Iowa, SV was rushed to a nearby emergency room for life-saving medical intervention. The damage to her colon was so severe that she was forced to undergo the surgical implantation of a colsotomy bag.

Bombardier Recreational Products (BRP) has been sued dozens of times over the past three decades by women that, like SV, sustained severe internal orifice injuries upon falling off the back of BRP manufactured PWCs. So not only is BRP well aware of the nature, mechanism and severity of PWC orifice injuries, but it is also aware of the fact that such injuries have continued to occur on its products for over thirty years (and, not surprisingly, with increased frequency as increasingly more powerful machines are manufactured and released into the market). Likewise, there is a mountain of evidence establishing BRP’s knowledge of the existence of safer alternative designs which would prevent injuries such as those sustained by SV from occurring, including (but not limited to) BRP owned patents of modified seat designs and handholds with the stated purpose of reducing the risk of rearward ejections.

Despite this knowledge, BRP has chosen to violate core safety engineering principles by trying to warn its way out of a design defect.  Laughery, Kenneth et al. “The Safety Hierarchy and Its Role in Safety Decisions.” www.safetyhumanfactors.org.

SV is being represented by Mazzola Law Firm, PLLC. The case, styled SV v. BRP, Inc., was filed in Dickinson County, Iowa on October 14, 2020.

Those interested in following the SV v. BRP matter (or any matter referenced on this website) can check back for blog updates documenting case developments or simply subscribe to the RSS feed.