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 down 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.