Your Legal Rights After a Fort Myers Jet Ski Accident

By David B. Pittman, Esq., Founder, Pittman Law Firm, P.L. | Last updated May 15, 2026

The first thing a rental shop’s adjuster does after a jet ski crash on Pine Island Sound is call the renter. They are friendly, they say it is just for the file, and they ask whether the renter signed the safety form. The waiver is real. What most renters do not know is what it does and does not cover under Florida law — and that gap is where most of the money in these cases either survives or disappears in the first 48 hours.

I want to walk through what Florida law actually says, what we see in practice in Lee County, and where these cases get tangled. Jet ski cases look simple from the outside (two boats, one collision, send it to the carrier) and almost never are.

What Florida law actually says about jet ski accidents

Personal watercraft are regulated under chapter 327 of the Florida Statutes, which the legislature publishes at flsenate.gov. Three sections of that chapter do most of the work in our cases:

• Section 327.39, the personal watercraft statute. An operator must be at least 14 years old, and anyone born on or after January 1, 1988 has to carry a Florida boating safety education card. Riding between a half hour after sunset and a half hour before sunrise is prohibited on a personal watercraft, full stop.
• Section 327.35, boating under the influence. A 0.08 BAC on the water is the same legal line as a 0.08 BAC on I-75. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission patrols Estero Bay every weekend and does administer breath tests at the ramp.
• Section 327.54, livery requirements. A rental shop renting more than three vessels must carry liability coverage of at least $500,000 per person and $1,000,000 per event, must give pre-rental instruction, and must check the renter’s ID and safety card before handing over the keys. Plain-English version: if the dockhand let an unlicensed 22-year-old take a 1,800-cc machine onto Pine Island Sound without watching the instructional video, the livery owns part of the case.

Two other Florida rules quietly shape every jet ski file we open. The first is the modified comparative negligence rule the legislature adopted in 2023, codified at section 768.81. After March 24, 2023, an injured party whose share of fault is more than 50 percent recovers nothing. At 50 percent or less, the award is reduced by the assigned percentage. The second is the two-year personal injury statute of limitations under section 95.11(4)(a), which also took effect in March 2023 and shortened the prior four-year window. Two years sounds like plenty of time. It is not.

Five jet ski crash patterns from Lee County files

With thirty-plus years of injury practice in Lee and Collier Counties behind me, the jet ski cases that come through our office sort into five patterns. They are not statistics from a brochure. They are what the file folder actually looks like:

• The rental-livery crash on Fort Myers Beach or Pine Island Sound. Two rented units, two riders who never met before noon, one of them cuts a turn into the other’s wake at thirty knots. Both sides paid the same shop. Both signed the same waiver. The shop’s carrier tries to point at the other rider; the other rider’s carrier points back. These cases turn on the rental log, the pre-rental briefing checklist, and whether the dockhand actually watched the safety video play.
• The borrowed-machine case. A friend hands over the keys at a private dock off McGregor Boulevard. The borrower has never operated a PWC. There is no rental waiver in play, but there is a negligent-entrustment claim against the owner and an owner’s homeowner or umbrella policy that is often the only real source of recovery.
• The wake-and-channel collision. A jet ski crossing the wake of a center-console near the mouth of the Caloosahatchee, often at high tide on a Sunday. Visibility and right-of-way under the Inland Navigational Rules become the case. We pull NOAA chart data and FWC patrol logs.
• The thrown passenger. A passenger riding behind the operator gets ejected on a sharp turn and lands wrong. Shoulder, neck, and tailbone injuries are the typical pattern. Florida case law has been kind to thrown passengers because the operator’s duty to a passenger is high and a passenger almost never carries comparative fault.
• The BUI case. Alcohol shows up in roughly a third of fatal recreational boating files nationally, according to the U.S. Coast Guard data the IIHS summarizes at iihs.org. On the water, BUI is treated the way DUI is treated on land, with the added factor that boaters are in the sun and dehydrated, which compounds the impairment.

Three reasons jet ski files take longer than a car case on Daniels Parkway

Three practical problems make a jet ski file slower than a car case along Daniels Parkway or Six Mile Cypress Parkway.

The scene disappears. A skid mark on Colonial Boulevard is photographed by Fort Myers Police within an hour. A debris field on Estero Bay is gone with the next tide. By the time the family calls a lawyer, the FWC officer has filed a one-page report and gone home, and the two riders have given conflicting versions to the rental shop with no body-cam footage. We move fast on these. Preservation letters to the livery on day one, FWC public-records requests on day two, and a marine reconstruction engineer on the water within the week if we can.

The second problem is that insurance is a patchwork. A homeowner policy may exclude watercraft over a certain horsepower. A PWC-specific policy may have a small liability limit. The livery’s policy may have a strict notice-of-claim window. A health insurer will pay the ER bill at Lee Memorial and then assert a subrogation lien against the recovery. Sorting this out is not a five-minute task, and the order matters. Paying a lien out of order can cost a client tens of thousands.

The third problem is causation. Jet ski injuries often involve a thrown passenger, a shoulder dislocation, a knee sprain, or a concussion that is not visible on the dock. The defense will argue the injury was a pre-existing condition or that it happened later loading the trailer at the ramp on Pine Island Road. We send clients to an orthopedist quickly and document the mechanism of injury in the first chart note, because that chart note is the single most important piece of paper in the file.

What to do if you have been hurt on the water

I have watched these files come in for thirty years, and the clients who recover the most are the ones who did a handful of small things in the first 48 hours. Not a generic checklist. These are the moves I have actually seen change a case:

• Get an FWC report number before you leave the ramp. Florida Fish and Wildlife is the agency with jurisdiction over a recreational boating accident, not the city police. The case number from FWC is what unlocks the public records later. If FWC will not come out, ask the responding agency to call them and add FWC to the call sheet.
• Photograph the rental paperwork on your phone before you sign it. Liveries change their waivers. A photo of the document as it sat on the counter the day of the rental, with the date stamp embedded in the image metadata, has carried more than one of our cases.
• Save the gear. The life vest, the helmet if you wore one, the goggles. If a strap failed or a buckle separated, that piece of equipment becomes the defense in a product case and the prosecution in a livery-maintenance case. Do not throw it away.
• See a doctor the same day, not the next week. Even if you think it is a bruise. A shoulder labrum tear from being thrown from a PWC will swell for forty-eight hours and then quiet down for two weeks before the real pain starts. The chart note from the day of the accident is the document that defeats a “pre-existing condition” defense later.
• Do not give a recorded statement to the other carrier. A rental shop’s adjuster will call within seventy-two hours and will be friendly. The friendly call is a recorded statement and it will appear in the defense file. Decline politely. Tell them your attorney will be in touch.

Key Takeaways

• Florida personal watercraft cases run on chapter 327. Sections 327.35 (BUI), 327.39 (operator rules and age), and 327.54 (livery insurance and instruction) are the three you cite.
• The statute of limitations for a Florida personal injury claim is two years for accidents on or after March 24, 2023, under section 95.11(4)(a). Move faster than that anyway.
• A rental waiver does not bar a gross-negligence claim and does not bind the manufacturer, the maintenance shop, or another operator.
• Florida’s modified comparative negligence rule under section 768.81 bars recovery if your share of fault exceeds 50 percent. Defense will push your share. Fight that number.
• Evidence on the water vanishes fast. FWC report numbers, photos of the rental paperwork, and the gear itself are the three items that hold a file together six months later.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q1. Does signing the rental waiver at the dock end my case?
No. A pre-injury release signed at a rental counter does not bar a claim for gross negligence under Florida law, and it does not bind the manufacturer, a maintenance shop, or a third operator who ran you over. The waiver is one piece of paper in a stack of evidence, not the end of the conversation. Bring it in and let us read it.

Q2. How long do I have to file a jet ski injury claim in Florida?
For most personal injury claims arising on or after March 24, 2023, the statute of limitations is two years under Florida Statutes section 95.11(4)(a). Wrongful death is also two years. Claims involving a government dock, municipal patrol vessel, or county park require a pre-suit notice within three years, and you should treat the timeline as much shorter in practice because evidence on the water vanishes fast.

Q3. What if the operator who hit me was drinking?
Florida treats boating under the influence the same way it treats DUI on land at 0.08 BAC under section 327.35. A BUI changes the case in three ways: it adds a criminal record that supports civil liability, it opens the door to punitive damages, and it usually loosens the rental company’s defenses because they put the keys in the wrong hands. Get the FWC accident report, which will tell you whether breath or blood was drawn.

Q4. I rented the jet ski. Whose insurance pays?
Most rental liveries in Lee County carry the statutory minimum required by section 327.54: at least $500,000 per person and $1,000,000 per event for liveries renting more than three vessels. Your own homeowner umbrella sometimes layers on top. If a second operator hit you, that operator’s homeowner or watercraft policy may be primary. We work through all of it in order.

Q5. What does a jet ski injury case actually cost me out of pocket?
Nothing up front. Our firm handles personal injury cases on a contingency fee. There is no fee unless we recover for you, and costs are advanced by the firm. You will sign a written fee agreement that complies with Florida Bar rules before we file anything. The first conversation is free.

If you were hurt on a jet ski in Lee County, call our office

I, and the rest of our office, have spent thirty-plus years working personal injury files in Fort Myers, Bonita Springs, Naples, Estero, Cape Coral, and Lehigh Acres. If you were thrown from a rental on Fort Myers Beach, hit by another rider on Pine Island Sound, or pulled out of the water off Estero Bay this season, we want to hear from you while the evidence is fresh. Call 239-992-8259 for a free consultation. There is no fee unless we recover for you.

About the Author

Pittman Law Firm, P.L., founded by David B. Pittman, Esq., has built thirty-plus years of personal injury practice in Fort Myers and across Lee County, representing injured clients across Lee and Collier Counties with a particular focus on commercial-vehicle, complex-liability, and serious-injury cases. The firm’s Fort Myers presence handles a steady stream of serious-injury work along the Daniels Parkway, Six Mile Cypress, McGregor Boulevard, Cleveland Avenue, and Summerlin Road corridors, and along I-75 between Estero and Bell Tower.

Two schools made the lawyer: The Citadel, The Military College of South Carolina, and the University of South Carolina School of Law. The recognition followed: AV-Preeminent at Martindale-Hubbell, membership in the Multi-Million Dollar Advocates Forum.

David has held a Florida real estate broker license for twenty-five years, a credential that shapes how the firm reads the property side of premises cases. The firm handles personal injury cases across Lee and Collier Counties, serving Fort Myers, Bonita Springs, Naples, Cape Coral, Estero, and Lehigh Acres, with offices at Windsor Place in Bonita Springs (main) and Fort Myers (satellite). Call 239-992-8259 for a free consultation.

The information on this page is general information about Florida personal injury law and is not legal advice for any individual case. Reading this page does not create an attorney-client relationship with Pittman Law Firm, P.L. Past results do not guarantee a similar outcome in any future case. This page is attorney advertising.