NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WSMV/Gray News) – A family in Nashville is suing the Middle Tennessee Council for the Boy Scouts of America after their 10-year-old son died in a jet ski crash while on a trip with the organization.
According to the lawsuit filed on Aug. 30, Jack Gear was riding a jet ski owned and operated by a person with the Boy Scouts of America on July 16.
Around 4:30 p.m. deputies responded to reports of a jet ski crash. While riding the jet ski, Jack was hit by a jet ski driven by a 19-year-old staff member.
The lawsuit said the other jet ski that collided with Jack was going at a high rate of speed.
Both Jack and the 19-year-old female staffer were seriously injured in the collision. However, Jack was taken to the hospital where he later died from his injuries.
The lawsuit states the following acts of negligence and recklessness were conducted by the Middle Tennessee Council’s Boy Scouts of America, its employees and representatives that caused Jack’s injuries and death:
- Failing to adequately and properly train its agents, representatives, and employees, regarding the proper and safe operation of personal watercraft.
- Failing to adequately and properly supervise its agents, representatives, and employees, regarding the proper and safe operation of personal watercraft.
- Failing to enforce the policies, rules, and guidelines applicable to the safe and appropriate operation of personal watercraft, including those promulgated by the Boy Scouts of America that requires operators to idle their engines when within 50 feet of another watercraft.
- Failing to train, instruct, and warn its agents and employees regarding the foreseeable risks including serious bodily injury and death that could result from the negligent and reckless operation of personal watercraft.
- Failing to ensure that proper training protocols and procedures existed for the training, supervision, and education of its employees and agents in the operation of personal watercraft.
- Failing to act in a reasonable and careful manner as the circumstances required.
Jack’s parents are suing the Middle Tennessee Council’s Boy Scouts of America for $10 million for the physical pain and suffering before his death.
They’re also suing for the value of Jack’s life, emotional recovery and their surviving children’s loss of companionship, love, affection, and guidance caused by the child’s death.
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