Boats Collide on Colorado River

While the story isn't in......I'm curious how they hit head on. I would think at 8 pm visibility still would have been decent.
 
I haven't seen it " all" however I'm amazed daily on how many idiot's are on the water. I am always cruising in the bay, bout 10knots or less in congested areas, and these yahoos are blazing by like they are late for a meeting cross town. Absolutely ridiculous. Each one volling for pole position. So, I'm not surprised when i see these stories popping up. Shame, as boating is supposed to be relaxing.
 
Had an uncomfortable moment for me Sunday evening. Wasn't a close call but something I don't like doing but there was a tugboat with several barges going upriver (3 barges wide) and a 12 boat raft-up on my starboard side with another tugboat with a single wide barge coming downriver (straight at us). There wasn't enough room for both tugs and the 12 boat raft for me to squeeze through. The barges were about 1/4 mile away from each other so plenty of room. The wider barge pulled over closer to shore and slowed to let the other tug go between him and the raft up. I passed the wide tug that was slowing and about 100 yards ahead of him I pulled over in front of him (he was pretty much stopped at this point). There was also a railroad bridge ahead (the single wide tug was under it) so I went under the bridge to my port side (the main channel and tugs go under on my starboard side). I still didn't like pulling in front of the wide tug even though he was going upriver and was almost stopped but it was either that or turn around and pull in behind the rafted up boats. I never got closer than about 200' of the wider barge from the side and probably at least 300-400' away when I pulled in front of him. I was never close to the single barge other than we we were both under the bridge but we had a large concrete pier between us.
I normally stay as far away as possible from those barges but looked like a really tight fit and I didn't want to be anywhere near them when they passed.
 
This is in our backyard of boating. A lot of speculation at this time. Lights on, others say no lights... images of the boats, in my opinion is that the Sleek was under power and the Hallett was either floating adrift in the current or at very low speed. There is a report that the Sleek was operating at an estimated 50 MPH which is absolutely insane on the river at night. As of now, the bodies of the 2 young females are still missing.

It's dark at 7:30 PM now and even more so on the river, not a lot of lights on various sections the river.
 

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