Queensbury, NY — There was an accident earlier this month (Tuesday, September 1, 2015) at Fischers Marina that left two people injured, including 16-year old dockhhand Hunter Tyminski.
The accident happened around 7:00 p.m. that evening, when Hunter Tyminski was refueling a boat for 46-year old Joseph Sheehan.
According to the reports so far, Tyminski had been working at Fischers Marina that summer and his job included refueling boats that came to the dock. Around 7:00 that evening, Sheehan’s boat pulled up and Tyminski put about 15 gallons of gas in the tank.
However, as Mr. Sheehan went to turn the keys in the ignition and start the boat, it exploded. Both Sheehan and Tyminski were badly injured and burned.
Later, the news ran some reports on the accident, saying that it’s possible that Tyminski had bene instructed to put the gas in the wrong chamber of the boat, possibly leading to the explosion.
Both Tyminski and Sheehan are still recovering from their burns. It should also be noted that Sheehan was not the owner of the boat he was operating.
Map of Fischers Marina
Commentary
This entire situation is a little odd, but I’m glad that nobody was killed here. What I mean by “odd” is that boats don’t (or shouldn’t) explode when you turn them on — something went very wrong here. But I don’t think it would be right to lay any blame on the teen who worked at the dock, since he was likely instructed by someone to put the fuel in a certain place. Whether that was negligent supervision by his employer or just plain ignorance on the part of a boat-owner, we don’t know. But it seems like this ought to be investigated a little more closely. Both the victims here suffered from the explosion, but it looks like the teen dock worker was the bigger victim, as he was simply trying to do his job when the explosion happened.
— Grossman Law Offices
