Anyone out there believe these people wouldn't have died

[proud2BlibKansan]

if ONE more crew member had been aboard?
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
LAKE GEORGE, N.Y. - A tour boat that capsized on a New York lake, killing 20 people, did not have the required number of crew members aboard, leading state regulators to suspend licenses for all five vessels belonging to the company that operated the tour, officials said Monday.

The Ethan Allen, which overturned Sunday on Lake George while carrying 47 elderly tourists, was required by state boating regulations to have two crew members, said Wendy Gibson, spokeswoman for the state Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation.

Any commercial boat that carries 21 to 48 passengers must have two crew members, she said.

Authorities have said the only crew member aboard was Capt. Richard Paris.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051004/ap_on_re_us/boat_overturned

[niyad]

1. gee, I guess that idiot radio announcer in texas would have said that they

were on "life's offramp", just like the elders on the bus that blew up.

[Berserker]

2. From what I understand

is they were sitting on plastic chairs not fixed to the deck and when the boat listed they all slid to one side and the boat turned over. What would one more crew member have done?
I'm not sticking up for anyone just trying to get all the facts.

[proud2BlibKansan]

4. I am not defending anyone either

I just don't believe that ONE more crew member would have made ONE bit of difference. Sounds like someone is just trying to deflect a lawsuit.

[frankly_fedup2]

3. It seems to me that the law would be common sense like it is on a

private boat. If passengers are very young or elderly, they should have a life jacket on. That should have been the first thing they had to do b4 they boarded.

[proud2BlibKansan]

5. OMG I hadn't heard that

No lifejackets? Isn't that illegal?

[hlthe2b]

6. Exactly... elderly, infirmed, those who can not swim MUST wear

life preservers. If common sense won't prevail, it needs to be instituted by law.

Shoot, I've never even allowed one of my dogs (all strong swimmers) to come along without a preserver fitted to them. What on earth were they thinking with these vulnerable elderly?

[proud2BlibKansan]

9. I am pretty certain it is a law here

that all passengers have to wear a life preserver on a motorized boat. I know when we go canoeing, they make kids wear them and all the adults have to have them. The rule is one life preserver in the canoe for every passenger.

[hlthe2b]

12. I believe CO requires as well... but apparently many states don't...

:shrug:

[Mnemosyne]

7. That boat looked too small

for 48 people anyway, imo. It was a pontoon type boat. And to have added another person, insane.
How sad.

[me b zola]

8. What bothers me

Is that they did not administer a drug/alcohol test to the captain. Any one of us, had we been in a fatal accident would have been tested. It is procedure.

They seem to be leaning toward the Ethan Allen having come into the wake of a large boat and that the captain could not control his boat in the wake.

It seems odd that they would not use test the captain to see if he may have been impaired.

[proud2BlibKansan]

10. Are they testing the captain of the larger boat?

Is he being held accountable or are they just going after this other guy because he didn't have ONE more crew member aboard?

[me b zola]

11. It doesn't seem as though they have much interest in the other boat

My point was, though, that if I had been involved in a fatal motor vehicle accident, even if I was clearly not the one who had caused the accident, I would be tested for alcohol/drugs.

The inequities of the justice system begin with the investigators/beat cops. Who gets pulled over? Who gets tested (not Laura Bush). Who gets hauled in when another gets set free?


I am not attempting to damn the captain of the Ethan Allan. He must feel a little dead himself right about now. My concern, though, is that because of the way that he was handled, I can pretty much guess that he was a white, middle class pillar of the community guy. Had he been brown or black, and not so well known within the community, he would have been treated much differently. Again, these are my assumptions, and if I am wrong, if he is not white nor well known within the community than I will eat crow.