"NYC XYZ" wrote in news:1130334632.427311.99350
@g43g2000cwa.googlegroups.com:


riverman wrote:
There certainly are some conflicting reports on what happened.

http://tinyurl.com/9w4yj http://www.nyrowing.org/
http://ny1.com/ny1/content/index.jsp?stid=8&aid=54486

But there is also some agreement. Apparently it was not broad daylight,
visibility was an issue, and no one seems to have assigned blame.

Yes, I stand corrected -- though morning, it wasn't "broad" daylight
since it was rainy and thus possibly misty.

I believe on of the site I read indicated that the incident occurred between
5:45 and 6:00am. I don't live all that far from New York City and leave for
work around 7:00am and it's still quite dark.

Visibility is always an issue where there is an absence of malice (and
alcohol, for that matter).

Funny our fellow paddlers are so silent this time about assigning
blame!

Why is it necessary to assign blame? The way I remember the previous
episode was that the fellow paddlers here were not claiming that the police
patrol boat was not at fault, but that ultimately that we are all
responsible for our own safety.

Legally, a motor vehicle must stop for a pedestrian in a crosswalk, and if
I'm in a cross walk and am run over by a motor vehicle the fault would be
attributed to the driver of the motor vehicle. Pragmatically, when a
collision involving a 2 ton motorized vehicle and a human occurs, the human
suffers the greatest amount of damage. Subsequently assigning blame isn't
as much an issue as who might be living the rest of their life crippled or
have their life ended right there. Similarly, in a collision between a
large power boat and a small paddle craft the operator of the paddlecraft is
going to suffer the greatest damage. While maritime right-of-way laws might
give the right of way to the paddle craft, those that take responsibility
for their own safety take whatever precautions are necessary to ensure their
safety rather than assume the rules of the road are going offer complete
protection. That means that carrying a light might meet a legal obligation
but if the light is not sufficient enough to prevent a near collision, most
rational people would conclude that having a brighter light (or maybe just
not paddling at night in certain waterways) will going further in preventing
a future incident than getting a bunch of people to support you in assigning
blame.