Lousiana man dies after 24' SR boat backs over him

[Swimparent]

Happened at an island near Orange Beach, AL on the Gulf Coast today.

I cannot imagine what his wife & children are going through. I think a prayer or two is in order. A special one for whomever accidentally put that boat in reverse instead of neutral. A tragic accident.

http://blog.al.com/live/2010/07/louisiana_man_dies_near_ono_is.html

 

[Summer Fun II]

Thats really sad prayers sent out to the familys. :smt001

While Poor was leaning over the stern of the boat to free the line, the vessel slipped into forward gear,

Now lets get REAL on this !!. How in the h*ll does that happen ???. :huh:

All the boats that I've ever owned NEVER just slipped into gear !!.

 

[fc3]

By not shutting the engine down. No one got into the water or approached any of my boats while the engine or engines were running. That's just good sense.

 

[tdschafer]

How sad. That poor family. It's obvious someone f#*ked up but to pay that price is way too steep. That's going to scar them all for the rest of their lives. My prayers go out to them............ Todd

 

[beernutz]

Very, very sad and so needless. I've stayed in Bella Luna and it is a pretty nice condo but I guess that means nothing now.

 

[Rono007]

Prayers & Blessings. Unimaginable.

 

[HUMPH]

That would be so traumatic for the kids....hard to imagine. Very careless but still a tragic story.

 

[jeremyandalison]

I read an article in a Canadian newspaper recently about boating or boating-related deaths and how there are a few 'activists' starting to clamor for more regulations over boating.

While I can't say that I support further regulation, I can say that based upon my anecdotal boating experience, I am frankly alarmed at what passes for boating knowledge, skill or even common sense.

We have been anchoring in a new spot this year which, on a nice day can get pretty crowded and yet it astonishes me at how quickly boats steam in and out of the area threading between anchored boats without regard for anchor lines or for swimmers. On top of that, I see constantly guys in 30-40' boats rolling in, dropping 7' of anchor line in 8' of water and then wondering why they drift.

I know I'm probably going to get a lot of flak for saying this, but as a lifelong sailor that only got into powerboating in the last few years, it seems that the barriers to entry into powerboating are simply not high enough - you really don't need to learn anything in order to be a menace to others. At least with sailing it is pretty difficult to do anything unless you have learned something about sailing and even then, you are going pretty slowly.

I would say that present company on these boards is excepted - by definition people here are interested in learning something about boating but in my experience it just doesn't seem to be the majority. Personally, I don't do much new on my SR without reading about it first - and that's on top of almost 30 years of sailing experience.

I'm not sure what the answer is - I don't want more police on the water but in my observations the behaviour of my average 'fellow boater' makes me wonder how there aren't more of these kinds of accidents.

 

[beernutz]

I read an article in a Canadian newspaper recently about boating or boating-related deaths and how there are a few 'activists' starting to clamor for more regulations over boating.

While I can't say that I support further regulation, I can say that based upon my anecdotal boating experience, I am frankly alarmed at what passes for boating knowledge, skill or even common sense.

We have been anchoring in a new spot this year which, on a nice day can get pretty crowded and yet it astonishes me at how quickly boats steam in and out of the area threading between anchored boats without regard for anchor lines or for swimmers. On top of that, I see constantly guys in 30-40' boats rolling in, dropping 7' of anchor line in 8' of water and then wondering why they drift.

I know I'm probably going to get a lot of flak for saying this, but as a lifelong sailor that only got into powerboating in the last few years, it seems that the barriers to entry into powerboating are simply not high enough - you really don't need to learn anything in order to be a menace to others. At least with sailing it is pretty difficult to do anything unless you have learned something about sailing and even then, you are going pretty slowly.

I would say that present company on these boards is excepted - by definition people here are interested in learning something about boating but in my experience it just doesn't seem to be the majority. Personally, I don't do much new on my SR without reading about it first - and that's on top of almost 30 years of sailing experience.

I'm not sure what the answer is - I don't want more police on the water but in my observations the behaviour of my average 'fellow boater' makes me wonder how there aren't more of these kinds of accidents.

I was somewhat shocked to learn when I was studying to get my boating license that Alabama (of all places) had stricter licensing requirements than a lot of states, even blue ones. I am not taking a shot at my home state as I generally love it and plan to retire here but we are not typically known for our regulatory zeal.

 

[ziekman@cox.net]

This is within the link from the original entry on this thread -


While Poor was leaning over the stern of the boat to free the line, the vessel slipped into forward gear, and he fell into the water, Steade said.

Someone on the boat tried to put the boat back into neutral but instead pushed the gear into reverse, Steade said. The boat struck Poor.

"His wife jumped in and immediately pulled him up and started CPR on him, but it was a futile attempt," Steade said.

 

[Sindbad]

I echo the point from beernutz and the former sailor. I too originally sailed and moved to power 15 yrs ago. I am astonished at what I see on lake st. clair where I boat....which helps explain why we normally have 5-7 deaths / yr on the lake. Michigan has no licensing requirement to operate a boat....which has always baffled me. My prayers to the family.

 

[fc3]

I agree with the guys above. Before you can get a pilot's certificate, you have to take ground classes and 100 hours of flight training. No one complains because mastering flight is hard and mistakes are expensive. Most boat owners learn by making mistakes. Usually they survive their mistakes without serious injury. But there has to be a better way. It's not hard to find news articles of people injuring themselves or guest aboard a boat. We even see here posted articles of people who made bad decisions. I don't think it onerous to require boater take some serious classes to become adept seaman. NJ requires an eight hour course that's a joke. Eight hours is barely enough time to lay out terminology much less teach anything of significance. Seems that requiring some in depth classroom training and several hours of on the water training is reasonable.

 

[JV II]

Thats really sad prayers sent out to the familys. :smt001

Now lets get REAL on this !!. How in the h*ll does that happen ???. :huh:

All the boats that I've ever owned NEVER just slipped into gear !!.

Not to be insensitive, but what was he doing untangling a prop when the boat was running? Forget about slipping into gear. Why was the engine running? If that is true, then this is just an example of Darwin's Law.

 

[beernutz]

Not to be insensitive, but what was he doing untangling a prop when the boat was running? Forget about slipping into gear. Why was the engine running? If that is true, then this is just an example of Darwin's Law.

Frankly I was thinking the exact same thing but I was too sensitive to say so.

 

[fc3]

While I agree with Frank, I must point out a mistake he made. I feel I have to, because he seldom errors. Sorry Frank, no hard feelings.

Actually it only takes 40 hours in the airplane at a minimum to earn your private pilot certificate, and even less if you choose to pursue the recreational pilot or sport pilot certificates. While it is true that most people don't get the certificate with the absolute minimum (your's truely excepted, uh hm) it should not take anywhere near 100 hours.

I only point this out so as not to discourage future aviators out here in boatland.

Yup, you're right. I was thinking average total hours for an IFR certificate, which was where I was heading when my wife had me stop flying. Stupid mistake.

 

[87cc]

First of all my thoughts and prayers are with Brents' family. I would hate to have been at the scene.

I hate to pick apart and analyze the accident. I did post it on my facebook & added that I posted it as a reminder to turn the motor off and remove the key before doing anything over the stern. I agree that more training,seamanship should be taking place. You don't need a license in MD. You only have to take a safety course if you were born after July 1st 1972. I don't know how they came up with that.

 

[jeremyandalison]

Canada recently introduced a mandatory 'boater card' that demands a mandatory online test for any powered water craft. Problem is, it requires no coursework, it's online multiple choice and costs $50 bucks. If you saw the questions, you'd cry because the questions are so poor you can guess the answers and plus the obvious - I defy you to ask twenty multiple choice questions of anybody that would give you confidence they are a minimally-knowledgable boater. This is a great example of government regulation gone amok - simply a $50 tax grab.

Looking harder at this terrible incident, I'd agree with the other posters who basically said first, "what the heck was he doing in the water with the engines running?". Since I was a sailing instructor 20 years ago, rule #1 has been if you are going to have a swimmer in the water, engines are off. If you inadvertently end up with someone in the water, the first priority (barring extraordinary circumstances where the boat is at risk and would therefore endanger everyone), is to get the engines off.

In Canada this summer we've already had several accidents - a 20 ft "speedboat" literally parked itself totally inside a houseboat on lake Shuswap killing one and a father who allowed his daughter to ride right on the bow as he was bounding through waves bounced her right off the boat and ran over her.

The likely government response will be of course to mandate that everyone wears lifejackets at all times while underway or some nonsense rather than addressing the root cause.

 

[Vince_nj1]

He was not in the water with the engine running. He was looking over the stern of the boat and someone put the boat into gear (or "it slipped into gear"), throwing him into the water, then someone, slammed the boat into reverse and killed him.

My prayers go out to the family, it appears that someone was playing with the throttle when they shouldnt have and the father paid for it with his life.