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I am Tosk I am Tosk is offline
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First recorded activity by BoatBanter: Nov 2009
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Default Tennessee Boaters Killed By Tug and Barges

In article m,
says...

"I am Tosk" wrote in message
...
In article 1660a4fc-2c0c-46bd-a669-a72a65d5d112
@b35g2000yqi.googlegroups.com,
says...

On Jun 22, 10:34 pm, Wayne.B wrote:
On Tue, 22 Jun 2010 21:29:00 -0400, W1TEF
wrote:

Even more so...

"None of the people in the fishing boat were wearing life jackets at
time of accident."

Sad.

It is sad, and it's really not clear exactly how it could have been
avoided other than greater vigilance/keeping out of the way. I have
to admit that I'm not much into wearing life jackets either except
under the most extreme circumstances, and it's not really clear that
wearing a life jacket will save you from being run over by 8 barges
and a tug. Probably not is my guess but you never know.

They probably became distracted by their fishing and didn't notice the
barges until too late, or perhaps their engine failed to start at the
critical juncture, or maybe they had an anchor own and couldn't get
it up, etc. There are lots of possibilities I suppose but it does
drive home the danger associated with small recreational boats mixing
in with large commercial traffic.

One has to wonder if the tug operator suffers from the same malady
that many of the 18 wheeler drivers do. The "I'm a 'professional'
driver, and these mere regular people in their cars and trucks need to
get out of my way" attitude. Rules of navigation notwithstanding,
it's on his conscience now.


Must be a local thing... Most truckdrivers here are pretty good on the
road. They hate to crash, slows them down plenty..

--
Rowdy Mouse Racing - We race for cheese!


I drove some for a couple jobs I had and after experiencing enough idiots
cutting in front of me and hearing about truckers dying or ending up
seriously injured rather than running (literally) over a "4 wheeler" I took
the attitude that if a driver was stupid enough to make it a him/her or me
situation it was going to be him/her.


Yeah, we pretty much always have a trailer on the rig and I can't
believe what folks will do driving around a trailer. People are so
stupid, and they could really care less about you or your family.

Like my neighbor said. "They don't drive like idiots, they just want to
get there before you"!

--
Rowdy Mouse Racing - We race for cheese!