Extra weight may be factor in fatal boat crash(Coast Guard uses 1960 data)

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9592756/

Just days before a tour boat capsized in the Adirondack Mountains, killing 20 elderly people, the Coast Guard began rethinking its passenger-weight calculations to take into account Americans’ expanding waistlines.

At the time it flipped over, the 38-foot Ethan Allen was just under its capacity of 48 passengers — a figure that was arrived at by using a 1960 Coast Guard standard that assumes a 140-pound average for each man, woman and child, authorities said.

Investigators looking into the accident have said that too much weight may have been a factor and suggested the Coast Guard standard might have to be revised because Americans are getting heavier — something the Coast Guard recognized well before the tragedy.

“We are looking at that and we know that if you look around at average people, you know this is not an accurate average to be using,” said Coast Guard spokeswoman Angela McArdle.

<snip>

Other government regulators also are changing standards to adapt to heavier Americans. Following a commuter plane crash that killed 21 people in 2003 in North Carolina, the Federal Aviation Administration raised its summertime weight average from 160 pounds per person to 174, including carry-on baggage.

[Fight_n_back]

1. Even AMerican boats are too fat

nt

[speedoo]

2. Coast Guard stupidity.

It's not like they have to do much research. The data is everywhere.

Incompetence, leading to death.

Seems like there is a lot of that going around.

[AndyTiedye]

3. Obesity Isn't The Only Factor

Smaller families mean that a larger proportion of the passengers are likely to be adults.

including carry-on baggage.

We do carry a lot of stuff around with us: cellphones, mp3 players, laptops, cameras....

The FAA and the Coast Guard have to consider the additional gear we carry around (most of which didn't exist in 1960) and the smaller number of children as well as expanding waistlines.

[kskiska]

8. & water bottles

though elderly people would be unlikely to carry those.

[Gormy Cuss]

11. Also now lost in the weight discussion: modifications to the boat

There was speculation earlier that the roof and perhaps the glass side panels were added after the fact. This would add a considerable amount of weight too, and if the roof was not part of the design it could make the craft more prone to flipping in rough water or a large wake.

Using the fat American excuse here doesn't pass the sniff test. As you point out, the average with an all-adult passenger load would be higher than the average weight for a mixed passenger load.

If the mix of passengers was a typical group of seniors, they were mostly female and mostly thinner than younger women and only the weight of carry-on gear would put the total near the load limit. There would be walkers and wheelchairs in addition to the gear you mentioned.

[CottonBear]

4. Disabled or frail people who can't swim should wear life jackets.

One of the survivors said that many of the people who died could not swim. The survivor could swim and tread water and knew to swim away from the wreck.

The obesity factor and the personal carry baggage issue is also important. I suppose the tour operator should weigh everyone and cut off the passengers when the maximum weight is reached rather than when the maximum allowed number of passengers is reached.

[auburngrad82]

5. How do you fit 38 people, some in wheelchairs, on a 38-ft boat?

I don't get it. I think the boat company is trying to move the blame from being overloaded to "the people were too fat".

[VLC98]

7. I was thinking the same thing.

This was a pleasure trip? I don't think being squashed on a boat like sardines in a can is very pleasurable.

[Jack from Charlotte]

6. Every boat has a sticker near the helm which states the capacity...

I don't know what it's based on. Surely the length and beam (width) and some formula regarding size. My 24 foot by 8 foot pontoon boat sticker says something like 14. That's absurd. I'd never put more than 9 on it. My Father-in-law also has a 24 foot pontoon boat by 8 1/2 wide with larger pontoons. His capacity is listed at....19. Are you freaking kidding me?

When I saw that number I thought about that chilling term used in the movie "Roots" about the slave trade....... Tight-pack.

There was a plane wreck on takeoff here in Charlotte a few years ago. Cargo & passenger weight was deemed too high. Cargo shifted and all 30 some were killed. FAA changed the weight plus baggage per passenger from something like 150 to 174.

[noonwitch]

9. This is the "big story" in the Detroit media

Most of the victims were from the area.

The media is nauseating about the whole story. They were following the busses carrying the survivors with their damn helicopters, they were waiting at one of the places the busses dropped people off to interview the grieving as they got off the busses, and were generally showing no respect for anyone's private grief. The officials at the city of Trenton told the media not to show up there when the bus came back, so instead they camped out in front of the church of one of the dead, and various other city halls where the officials allowed them to congregate.

The story should be covered, I have no problem with covering the deaths or the investigation into what went wrong on the boat. But can't they let people grieve in private? It is unnecessary to interview them, we don't need to see such interviews, so why do them?

It's like Columbine, when the police were still evacuating children from the school, and the idiots are sticking cameras and microphones in their faces as they are being brought to a safe place.

[classics]

10. I know its now 'diet season' but this is beyond stupid.

Wouldnt it be more constructive to concentrate on what actually happened? Like finding who swept past this boat so hard and fast it turned it over?