The Region - News from May 22, 1985

The driver of a 20-foot pleasure boat that crashed into an unlit buoy in Anaheim Bay last October, leaving five people dead and four others injured, has filed a negligence lawsuit in Los Angeles federal court against the U.S. Navy, the City of Seal Beach and Orange County. The lawsuit, filed on behalf of Virl Earles, 28, contended that the Navy and other authorities were negligent in maintaining the 1,000-pound buoy off the Seal Beach shoreline. The lawsuit alleged that, in addition to being unlit, the buoy was uncharted. Earles, who suffered multiple injuries, is seeking an unspecific amount. An investigation by the Orange County Sheriff’s Department found that Earles’ alcohol blood level was 0.11%. The standard level for drunken driving is .10, but Dana Denton, Earles’ lawyer, has said that no such legal standards exist for boaters.