Do You Know The Trailer Regulations In Your State?

Do You Know The Trailer Regulations In Your State?

- Kim Kavin

Boat-trailer decouplings that lead to deaths and criminal prosecution are so rare that the Boat Trailer Manufacturers Association doesn’t even have statistics about them, says Darren Envall, the group’s assistant executive director. Still, two fatal incidents serve as reminders about the importance of properly securing boats and trailers.

Within a month of a 42-year-old man being sentenced to 60 days in jail for criminally negligent homicide after his boat and trailer broke loose in traffic and killed a woman on Staten Island, New York, police were investigating a fatal trailer decoupling on a highway in Louisiana. The death that led to jail time in New York occurred in 2015 when Michael Khmil was trailering his Trophy behind a Toyota SUV. According to news reports, Khmil had the 4,000-pluspound boat atop a trailer designed for a 3,000-pound load; had failed to install safety chains connecting the trailer to the vehicle; and had failed to install a braking system on the trailer, despite warning labels.

During rush hour on Hylan Boulevard — a major thoroughfare — Khmil steered the SUV from the right lane to the center lane, the reports state. Two bicyclists were in the right lane. The trailer detached from the vehicle and stayed in the right lane, striking the bicyclists. Alexa Cioffi, 21, was pronounced dead soon afterward at Staten Island University Hospital.

The Louisiana incident occurred in late November 2017 about an hour southeast of Baton Rouge, where multiple news reports say a boat and trailer uncoupled from a Chevy Silverado driven by 20-year-old Jeremiah Allee. The boat, whose make was not immediately reported, and the trailer then crossed a highway’s centerline. They slammed into a delivery truck, killing its 49-year-old driver, David Burvant.