Wildwood Waverunner Collision Leaves Teenager With Shattered Leg, $1.35 Million Judgment

On the afternoon of August 30, 2007, a 14-year-old boy was riding as a passenger on a rented waverunner in Richardson Sound, a stretch of water just west of Wildwood, New Jersey, inside a riding area approved and designated by the New Jersey State Police. He was aboard a 2006 Yamaha VX110 driven by George R. Djukanovic, Jr., then 18, one of five waverunners circling an area of roughly 880 yards by 880 yards rented out by Lucky Fin Water Sports, LLC. Nearby, 23-year-old Marc M. Roy, Jr. of Connecticut was riding another rented machine with his own passenger. Neither Djukanovic nor Roy had ever operated a waverunner before that day.

Lucky Fin's on-water supervisor, David Reynolds, had told the group to keep 300 feet between machines, never to follow directly behind another rider, and to scan the water before slowing or turning. Partway through the hour-long rental, Reynolds reprimanded Roy for riding too close to another waverunner that was idling in the water, driving over to him and telling him to keep away from the others. Later Reynolds saw Roy inside 300 feet of Djukanovic's machine and directly behind it, and started toward him again. He was still 70 to 80 yards off when Djukanovic turned left without looking behind him. Neither Djukanovic nor his passenger saw Roy coming. Roy's watercraft slammed into the left rear of Djukanovic's machine, smashing the boy's leg below the knee. Roy later pleaded guilty to operating his watercraft at an unsafe speed. Djukanovic was not charged with any violation.

The teenager went through four surgeries and a skin graft, spent a month in a wheelchair, and was left with a metal plate and six screws in his leg. He lost sensation in his foot, which doctors nearly amputated. His father said he had been an all-star athlete who especially loved baseball and has not played since, and the family put documents before the court indicating he will have permanent disabilities.

Steven DiNenno, Sr. sued Lucky Fin, Roy, and Djukanovic as guardian ad litem for his son. The court split the case into separate liability and damages trials. At the three-day liability trial held in October 2011 before Judge Joseph E. Irenas of the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey, Roy did not appear; he had been deposed but never answered the complaint. Djukanovic, by then incarcerated on unrelated charges, testified by videoconference. The opinion lists Westmoreland Vesper & Quattrone, P.A., by Thomas J. Vesper, as counsel for the plaintiff.

Irenas found that Lucky Fin had instructed and supervised its renters adequately and that Reynolds could not have stopped the crash once Djukanovic began his turn, so the company was not negligent and its share of fault was zero. Roy, the judge found, caused the collision by riding too close to Djukanovic and directly behind him, in defiance of the instructions he had been given; his fault was set at 80 percent. Djukanovic was found 20 percent at fault for turning without keeping a proper lookout.

The case ended in a $1,350,000 judgment, reported by the Press of Atlantic City in June 2012. Vesper said he expected the judge to add interest and other costs, and that under the law Roy was responsible for paying it. Roy never answered the suit or the family's efforts to collect on it. The father called it probably an uncollectible debt, said he had no plans to appeal, and said he wanted the story told so other families would think twice about letting untrained young riders take out personal watercraft without close supervision.