Boat Collision in Kotor Bay: Serbian Driver Was Drunk

A Serbian national was driving a boat under the influence of alcohol when it collided with another vessel last night in Kotor Bay, Montenegrin police said. On the prosecutor’s order, he will face criminal charges on suspicion of endangering public traffic. The crash, described as one of the most serious this season on that stretch of the Adriatic coast, directly concerns Serbian citizens as well, since large numbers of them spend their summers in Boka every year, and the circumstances surrounding the collision are being followed closely in Belgrade too.

The collision happened on Sunday, August 23, around 10:20 p.m., on the waterway between Stoliv and Prcanj, about 250 meters offshore near Markov Rt. A large rigid-hull inflatable boat driven by B.C. collided with a speedboat from Risan driven by I.S. of Kotor. Besides the driver, the inflatable was carrying nine passengers, while the other boat had four more people on board in addition to I.S. In total, according to police data, fifteen people were involved in the accident.

Police determined that B.C. was operating the boat under the influence of alcohol. The test result for I.S. was not explicitly stated in the police statement. Adria TV and Sjever Crne Gore, the outlets that first reported the story, say six people received help from Emergency Medical Services teams at the scene. Citing police, the portal PV Informer headlined its report by saying fifteen people were injured, meaning everyone who was on both boats at the moment of the collision. The discrepancy between the two figures has not been clarified in the statements published so far.

The accident happened on the night of Boka Night, the traditional maritime festival held in Kotor, which brought an unusually large number of boats of all types and sizes into the bay, including in the late evening hours. According to unofficial information reported by Adria TV, the inflatable did not have its navigation lights on at the time of the collision, which is why the crew of the other boat failed to spot it in time and could not avoid it. Preliminary data also show that both boats were traveling at 15 and 17 knots at the time of the crash, inside the 300 meter zone from the shore where such speeds are prohibited.

Besides the police, inspectors from the Navigation Safety Inspection of the Kotor Port Authority were on site, and the Maritime Accident Investigation Commission has also been brought into the case. The circumstances of the collision are also being established using data from the VTS system, the electronic vessel tracking system run by Montenegro’s Maritime Safety Administration. Once the case file is complete, the state prosecutor at the Basic State Prosecutor’s Office in Kotor has ordered that criminal charges be filed against B.C. on suspicion of committing the criminal offense of endangering public traffic.

For Serbian tourists, who make up a large share of summer visitors to the Montenegrin coast, the case is a reminder that speed limits near the shore and the ban on operating a boat under the influence of alcohol apply just as strictly as they do on the roads, and that monitoring in Boka, including electronic tracking of vessel movement, covers smaller recreational craft such as inflatables and speedboats as well. Montenegrin authorities have not yet said when the investigation into the exact cause of the collision is expected to conclude.