Quote:
|
Originally Posted by jigemup
I was there when the event occurred and can tell you that it was the best illustration of how something can go wrong so quickly on a boat. I know the operator and he passed my location while heading to mid-lake. He is very experienced and has been boating for at least 20 years. He hit a wake going about 55mph (not the 70mph that the union misleader reported) and went airborne. Upon impact the motor broke free from the mount (defective mount perhaps?...don't know) and both on board were ejected from the boat. I can tell you that this wake was no larger than the other 1000 or so the operater confronts every year but the distance between waves made it tricky. There was virtually no boat traffic on the water that early and the wake had travelled a distance, spreading the waves out. That fact, coupled with the speed caused the accident. Operation of the boat was niether reckless nor suffered from inexperience of the operator. The operator and passenger had PFDs on and the kill switch was attached (tournament rules). We all learned a valuable lesson that morning and are thankful that our friend was OK. And yes the outboard was rescued too.
The other scary part was later in the day witnessing all the pontoons and runabouts with kids and adults riding on the bows. With as much traffic on that lake creating wakes later in the day, it's a wonder more accidents don't happen. I guess I just can't see why people would put kids up front and then not slow down for a wake. The accident earlier in the day illustrated just how fast something out of the ordinary can happen.
|
This
isn't a case of "operator error"?
