"No Spam" wrote in message
news:j38Vd.38241$ya6.25850@trndny01...
That was kind of my take on it. I take more precautions out on a lake. I
really hope the news story left out many details that would help explain
the
seeming lack of preparation. Many times these things are a string of
little
items that add up to disaster. You know the stories, the emergency bag was
left in the car, the tow line broke etc. It all snowballs until it is too
late. It is the experienced person that knows to recognize the little
things
coming together and stops them before it's too late. I did see that the
chase boat had engine failure, so that was one item in the chain. I will
assume that there were others that conspired against this group. I hope to
see a complete story at some point in the future so that we can all see
just
how something like this happens. It might prevent someone else from
falling
in the same trap.

Ken


There is quite a bit available online about this. The guide, Steve Hall, was
no novice (http://www.orrtreks.com/index2.htm ), and from his years of
experience and familiarity with what he was doing at the time, I'm inclined
to think that Ken's post is likely to be in the right vein; you cannot
predict all the possible events, so you take reasonable precautions for the
more likely ones, and go for it; nontheless sometimes things happen.

The alternative: do nothing that involves any risk whatsoever, is so
distasteful to me that I won't comment further on it.

The definition of 'reasonable precautions' is vague, but mutually recognized
by people with experience, and in the lack of details we must look at the
guide's qualifications to determine if he was qualified to assess what was
'reasonable'. It sounds like the guide was well-qualified to lead this type
of trip, had done it many times before, and in this case, as sometimes
happens, a series of unfortunate events resulted in two students' deaths.

I've been on trips where canoeists have gotten away from the pack and had me
worried, and I've been on trips where clients have died, as have others
here. Of course hindsight is 20-20, as is armchair quarterbacking. But from
his bio, as well as the fact that Darlington school had empowered him to
lead trips dozens of times in the past, I'm inclined to believe that this
could be a case of 'there but for the grace of god...'

My condolences for the familys of the kids, and my sympathy for the turmoil
that Steve Hall and Darlington School are about to go through. There could
easily be no winners in this.

--riverman