On Jun 23, 11:01*am, W1TEF wrote:
On Tue, 22 Jun 2010 20:32:52 -0700 (PDT), Jack
wrote:





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 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.

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.

I don't know how big the tow was, but a typical tow is four to five
barges moved by a pusher - a lot of times even bigger than that. *You
need a long sight line because these tows are a couple of hundred
long. *If the accident was on a bend, you have zero sight line and
have to rely on radio communication to make the turn. *If these guys
didn't have a radio, for instance, they might never have known the tow
operator was even there.

Not attitude as much as it is, what the hell can I do with a few
thousand tons of floating steel in a confined space? *:)

Good point. The story called it a "lake", but after googling it I see
it's more of a river. Seems to be 1/2 to 1 mile wide and almost 60
miles long. I had pictured a more open situation with room to see and
manuever.