Holiday Boat Ride Ends in Tragedy
Twenty-seven people were aboard a boat in Oyster Bay last week for the Fourth of July festivities. They were one of a multitude of boats on the water that night, clamoring for the shore after the fireworks were done. But this boat, unlike the others, capsized, killing three children.
According to the Christian Science Monitor, an investigation is underway into the cause of the accident. Weather, overcrowding, mechanical malfunction, or the wake of another vessel are all potential contributors.
The children were in the cabin at the time of the accident and weren’t wearing life jackets. According to some reports, there were only six life jackets on the boat, not nearly enough for the 27 occupants.
CSM reports that this accident is just one in a trend, that boating accident deaths are growing in number. In 2011, boating deaths rose 12.8 percent. While the Coast Guard wishes they could mandate life preservers for everyone on a boat or require classes for those who want to navigate a vessel, it isn’t within their power to do so. Instead, the states set their own requirements, and those requirements vary widely.
Gail Kulp of the Sea Tow Foundation says 47 out of 56 states require some type of training to take place. But in New York, those classes only apply to personal watercrafts like jet skis. Her organization is said to be using social medial to promote boater’s safety—including directing people to resources where loaner life jackets can be found.
Only 12 percent of the 758 people who died last year in boating accidents were wearing life jackets.
Some say that having 27 people on a boat the size of the one that sank in Oyster Bay is problematic. But about one-third of the occupants were children, so perhaps they were going by weight limit.
Officials are expected to raise the boat this week and begin their investigation into the cause of the accident.
“Until they bring the boat up, you just don’t know because they may have hit something or maybe a seacock gave way,” said Phil Cappel of the Coast Guard’s Boating Safety Division.
When you get on the water or allow your child to join a friend for a day on the boat, you put their life in the hands of the skipper. Whether the boat is hit by another boater or if weather conditions cause it to capsize, the results can be tragic.
