3 Dead, 5 Injured

[GordMay]

3 Dead, 5 Injured, in evening boat crash, north of Kingston, Ontario
Ontario Provincial Police say the crash happened in the Buck Bay area, of Bobs Lake, after 9:30 p.m. [an hour after sunset], on Saturday. It involved "an open bow fishing-style boat" and a speedboat, they said.

OPP said two of those who died, a 21-year-old woman, and a 23-year old man, were from South Frontenac Township. The third was a 22-year-old woman, from Elginburg, Ont., just outside Kingston.

All three were pronounced dead at the scene, OPP said.

Five other people, aged between 21 to 44, were taken to hospital, in Kingston, with a range of injuries. One of the patients was airlifted.
Police said they found other people at the scene, who'd been on the boats, but they didn't need to be hospitalized.

[Thomas1985]

Everyone gets worked up about dangerous the ocean is, but I see stuff like this all the time on smaller inland lakes.

All my close calls have been on smaller lakes after dark.

[DragonflyBob]

We were on the ICW motoring at 6-7 knots from Pensacola, FL to The Wharf Marina in Gulf Shores, AL about 10 days ago on a Saturday. The stupidity shown by probably 25% of the powerboaters was astounding. To make it worse, there was a Poker Run happening and we had idiots in high speed center consoles and Scarab/Cigarette type boats buzzing past us at 50-70 mph 50-100 feet away. Scary!

[senormechanico]

Just imagine what a hundred feet of floating line in the middle of that would do...

[TrentePieds]

Bob's Lake is in "cottage county", and geologically it's "Canadian Shield" - not the sort of place where one should go boating in "an open bow fishing-style boat" after dark, let alone in a "speedboat".

As always, the "news report" omits far more than it tells us, so let's not pay too much attention to this incident.

A few years ago, a Canadian TeeVee personality, star of a Canadian program aping "the Apprentice" - Lord preserve us! - pulled a stunt like this in another part of Ontario's "cottage country". Pinned it on this wife tho'.

Let us just wait and see what charges and convictions may follow from this. IMO, if you go speedboating in cottage country after dark you are asking to meet Mr. Darwin!

TrentePieds

[Shrew]

Originally Posted by senormechanico

Just imagine what a hundred feet of floating line in the middle of that would do...

Wreak havoc unconditionally, potentially causing damage or stranding innocent boaters as well as any others which you deem necessary to dole out pre-emptive retribution.

[GordMay]

'Time stopped for me':
Witness describes aftermath of fatal boat crash ➥ https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottaw...kend-1.7209475

Video ➥ https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/video/9.4231084

[CaptTom]

What a tragedy. And apparently so preventable. So far the story is emerging pretty much along the lines I suspected when I first saw the headline. I won't opine further, except to say that there are a lot of lessons to be learned here. I can only hope those who need to are paying attention.

[TrentePieds]

hmm... I think we can take it for granted that "those who need to" have NOT been paying attention and will not be paying attention in the future!

Questions to which it would be nice to have answers are simple enough: Was the "tinny" showing the required light? Did the "speed boat" have any lights at all? What was the speed of the "speed boat" in the moments before impact? Did the drivers of the boats have the required Pleasure Craft Operator Card?

In brief: Did the person in charge of each boat act responsibly?

We will never know, because these sorts of accidents are so banal that "the press" will lose interest before the next sunset.

I cannot believe that there is anything to be learned from this incident that members of CF don't already know.

TrentePieds

[JPA Cate]

It is not only on cottager lakes in Canada that these kinds of events occur.

It does not even need DUI to be involved. All it takes is someone in a dinghy going ashore, even with nav lights on in the dinghy, and one inattentive motor boat driver. Friend was in this situation, his good lady wife suffered head injuries, but it was a doctor on the motorboat that struck them who saved her life long enough to get her to a hospital.

The more careful you are to avoid injury the more likely you are to be among the living. If you're out on the water often enough, you will encounter unlit boats at night. Taking out your spotlight and shining it on them, often gets them to turn them on. We've overtaken unlit sailboats on ocean routes, at night, also. Wires break, low batteries, whatever. Makes me exceedingly angry, but it is part of life on the water. Where intentional, imo, it is despicable behavior.

And what a terrible thing for the families of the deceased to suffer, also. My condolences to their loved ones.

Ann

[Lodesman]

Originally Posted by TrentePieds

Bob's Lake is in "cottage county", and geologically it's "Canadian Shield" - not the sort of place where one should go boating in "an open bow fishing-style boat" after dark, let alone in a "speedboat".

What a curious statement. Could you explain why you think boating after dark there shouldn't be done?

[TrentePieds]

I didn't say BOATING shouldn't be done after dark. I said that a lake located in the Canadian Shield - due to its remoteness and lack of emergency services if only an hour's car drive north of Kingston, Ont. - is not the PLACE to do it. And specifically not in a "tinny" or, worse still, in a "speedboat" like the one you saw in the pic.s. But as an Ontarian you already know that :-)!

Blasting along after dark at 45 knots in the sort of "speedboat" you saw there bespeaks a high level of disregard for other people and even for yourself. You will recall that my comment about speed was phrased as a question. That was because we simply DON'T know what that boat's speed was in the moments before impact, but we DO know, from observing the boat's design and nature, that such a boat's ONLY raison d'être is to go hell-for-leather for the jollification of the driver.

Don't tell me that that is "only" circumstantial evidence. I already know that!

I don't know about you, but I do know that as a "favour for a favour" a SAR boat driver I had done a favour took me in a standard small SAR "ribbie" from the White Rock Pier around Point Roberts to the Sand Heads Light and back again, about 50NM. at fiveandforty knots. The man knew what he was doing and so did I.

I never told him it wasn't saltwater I was standing in :-)!

Salut :-)!

TrentePieds

[JPA Cate]

I never told him it wasn't saltwater I was standing in :-)!

Oh, sure it was! PLUS, Maybe a few additives. ;-)

Ann

[Lodesman]

Originally Posted by TrentePieds

I didn't say BOATING shouldn't be done after dark. I said that a lake located in the Canadian Shield - due to its remoteness and lack of emergency services if only an hour's car drive north of Kingston, Ont. - is not the PLACE to do it. And specifically not in a "tinny" or, worse still, in a "speedboat" like the one you saw in the pic.s. But as an Ontarian you already know that :-)!

Blasting along after dark at 45 knots in the sort of "speedboat" you saw there bespeaks a high level of disregard for other people and even for yourself.

You're forgiven your west coast unfamiliarity with this region. The Canadian Shield extends down into New York, so not all of it is that remote. An hour drive to Kingston, but about a 5 minute flight by air ambulance to the hospitals in either Perth or Kingston. Pretty common runs by them from car crashes along Hwy 7, which is as remote. Lot less remote than the various anchorages in The Bahamas or Caribbean, where many of our peers go for nocturnal boaty jaunts.

As many of the cottages there are accessed by boat, I think it fairly reasonable to be out in a tinny after dark. I agree that tearing along at 45 in a speedboat would not be reasonable, but I don't know if we can necessarily assume that was the case. The fact that the "fast" boat ended up parked on top of the tinny suggests a somewhat less reckless speed prior to collision. Maybe the investigation will clear the confusion, but imagine most questions will remain unanswered.

[Mike OReilly]

The investigation is ongoing, and it's too early to say for certain what happened, but the news media has been doing a good job reporting various eyewitness reports. Here's a good summary:

https://youtu.be/H7q24l-bLLM?si=BAtS66YDaq1zJ7zg