On Mon, 13 Jul 2009 19:34:50 -0700 (PDT), Tim
wrote:

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/miam...y/1137971.html

I know the article states that charges could be pending, but just from
what is gathered by the article, there's a lot that isn't known.

the victims were fishing way off shore at about midnight. Nothing is
said about proper nav. lights or at least lighting in general , or
night visability conditions..

At least the people that rammed them hailed for help and stayed around
to search.

but any way you look at it, , it still isn't good.

Not enough information to tell, but by the rather vague
"investigating", it would appear that it was what it was - an
accident.

The first thing law enforcement would look for is evidence of alcohol
involvement (or drugs) and nothing was said about that. Based on the
story, the fact that they were able to execute a quick turn and
recover a passenger would seem to indicate that they had control of
their vessel.

I've had something similar happen to me a couple of times. Once I was
a couple of miles out of the East Passage to Narraganset Bay - dark
night, small boat with one of those dinky anchor lights on a pole and
three guys standing fishing - no power and the light was dim. If it
wasn't for the fact that the boat swung with the wind, I might have
not seen them until it was too late and run them over even though I
wasn't running the Contender at speed.

Another time was on Webster lake. Small aluminum boat, anchor light
lost against the shoreline lights, dark night, etc.

I have very good night vision and I always wear high contrast yellow
glasses when driving or fishing at night and can see really well even
when it's super dark so it can happen.