This is so SAD! I hate these things!

[iwaterskihard]

Seen this on the news today and it just makes me continually shake my head! All I ever ask is why? Why? Why do they allow these things on the lake?

B.C. boating accident kills Edmonton girl

CBC News Posted: Aug 27, 2011 12:36 PM

A 10-year-old girl from Edmonton is dead after a boating accident on Okanagan Lake near Kelowna, B.C.

Okanagan Lake, B.C.
Police say the accident happened at about 8 p.m. PT Friday night about 1.5 kilometres off shore when a WaveRunner and a 21-foot pleasure boat collided.

The girl was a passenger on the WaveRunner, a type of personal water craft, which was being driven by her 18-year-old brother. He suffered non-life threatening injuries.

The two people in the boat were not injured.

Several doctors who were having dinner at a nearby restaurant tried to revive the girl, police say, but they were not successful.

The girl's name has not been released.

West Kelowna RCMP are investigating, but police say alcohol and speed are not believed to be factors.

[jmvotto]

Very very sad, On saturday I had 9 teenage girls in the boat with me, boarding and tubing. One guy on a jet ski was a riding passenger to his young son driving and it was erractic if not dangerous, we had to avoid them a couple times.
where is the Po po when you need them to warm erractic drivers.

one thing for sure no PWC's at our lake house....

[sandm]

it's sad, but I can't say that I'm for any kind of ban/outlaw. they are really no different than motorcycles, and we see many many deaths every year from them. it would appear from the story that they were not drunk or speeding, so maybe just being in the wrong place/wrong time? heck, might even be the boat owners fault?

I do have an issue with people that operate them erratically, but like any motorized machine, some people operate with safety in mind, and some don't. I do have to say that a speed limiter would not be a bad idea. no reason to be doing 35 on one of them, but with anything, someone will figure out how to bypass..

[Suprahunter]

35 how about 80 some of the new models that have 250 hp. They are the most dangerous boat on the water . At least a licence with training is needed at best a restricted area to operate them away from other boats.

[sandm]

license with training won't help much. look at states like mine that require motorcycle training.

all the training in the world is no offset for one second of poor judgement.

[cab13367]

Sorry to hear this. Unfortunately, I think it's just a fact of life in boating that there are lot of people out there with no common sense or are just purposely irresponsible/wreckless. For example, in just one hour on our local lake Saturday, we witnessed the following:

1. A boat wakesurfing against traffic (our lake is counter clockwise only when towing).
2. A boat following us too closely as we were pulling three kids under 10 on a tube.
3. A PWC crossing our wake back and forth as we were wakesurfing. I honked the horn and we were waving frantically to get her attention and she newer saw or heard us. Total tunnel vision.
4. Got cut off while wakeboarding causing my son to come to an emergency stop. The offending boat was also towing a rider and when their rider crashed, they turned to starboard and toward us instead of to port away from us.

My son who is 15 and has been (legally) driving my boat for a couple of years now under my supervision, said it best. He said the hard part about learning to drive a boat is having to deal with all the people that are doing things they are not supposed to be doing.

We are always on our guard out on the lake because you never know what the next idiot is going to do.

Sorry for the rant.

Al

[c.rix]

very sad to hear for sure

But when I saw the title and saw boating accident a couple things that comes to mind are...

A. jet ski, wave runner, pwc whatever you want to call it hitting another boat
B. Boat pulling a tube not paying attention like they always do
C. The worst combo by far jet ski pulling a tube

On the lakes that I go to its only a matter of time until something like this happens on saturday I saw 2 boats tubing driver looking backwards the entire time almost clip another tuber somehow missing each other and the tubers could have literally gave one another a High five but I think they crapped their pants cause both boats stop tubing had a little yelling spout and left the bay

[iwaterskihard]

Well I just looked and here's an update. Appears it was the boat that hit the WaveRunner and not the other way around.


Police say it could take weeks before all details leading to the death of a 10-year-old girl on Okanagan Lake Friday night are known.

Investigators with the RCMP, West Coast Marine Services, Transport Canada and B.C. Coroners Service are all taking part in the investigation.

The girl, from St. Albert, Alberta, died when the Yamaha Waverunner she was on was struck by a boat.

The incident occurred about a km from shore, south of the Cook Road Boat Launch.

Police have confirmed the operator of the Waverunner was an 18-year-old Kelowna teen who was carrying his 10-year-old sister.

Sgt. Ann Morrison says the teen is expected to be released from hospital on Monday.

She says the boat involved was a 20-foot Cobalt operated by an adult female with an adult male passenger.

Neither was injured.


But on another note same lake different area. How good is this next one?


Firefighter lucky to be alive


by Daniel Hayduk - Story: 64126
Aug 29, 2011 / 11:30 am



A volunteer firefighter is lucky to be alive after being run over by a personal water craft on Okanagan Lake Sunday afternoon.

RCMP spokesperson Gord Molendyk says that shortly after 1 p.m. on August 28, a personal water craft (PWC) with two occupants struck a boat near Kin Beach on Okanagan Lake.

The PWC, which Molendyk says was being operated by a 9-year-old, was attempting to ride the wake behind a boat being operated by a 27-year-old from Carrs Landing, reportedly a volunteer firefighter.

"These kids were trying to jump their wake the whole time and the fireman was yelling at them to get back and stay away. They didn't, they just ignored him," says a witness, who asked not to be named.

The PWC then drove over the back of the Malibu Response ski boat, crushing the man -- narrowly missing the other two passengers on the boat, a 37-year-old man and his 5-year-old son.

Molendyk says the man suffered facial abrasions and a possible concussion.

The 9-year-old driver of the PWC was also hospitalised, while his 18-year-old passenger was uninjured.

Another witness, Winton Williams, says both men on board work for the Kelowna fire department.

"The men in the boat are a credit to firefighters everywhere. They were very calm and I could easily see that they were the type of individuals who would respond well under extreme stress and danger," says Williams.

"It is very lucky no one was killed," says Williams.

Witnesses report the boys on the PWC were driving recklessly just prior to the accident.

"They were weaving in and out of boats on the lake and jumping boat wakes including the boat they landed on. The 18-year-old had traded spots with the 9-year-old just prior to the crash. It was the 9-year-old who was driving when it came up over the boat and landed on the driver."

Molendyk says charges in the incident are possible.

"Investigators are looking at the possibility that charges could be laid because of the age of the person operating the PWC."

Some of these craft can go over 100 km/h and Transport Canada says no one under 16 is supposed to operate a PWC.

Only a few days ago a child was killed on Okanagan Lake while riding a PWC. A 10-year-old Edmonton girl died on August 26 when the PWC she was on was struck by a boat.

[jpetty3023]

The worst thing about the posted story is that a 10 year old child is the one who died and she had no control over the watercraft or her horrible fate that day


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[moombadaze]

Sad, just sad.

[rdlangston13]

no reason to be doing 35 on one of them, but with anything, someone will figure out how to bypass..

35??? are you serious?? I have a buddy with a seadoo rxp, supercharged 225 hp and knock out 80 all day long and man is it a blast!!
my dad has a yamaha vxr that is electronically limited to 68 and it is a blast!
35 is very VERY boring on a wave runner. kawasaki has a new model with 300 hp, that thing has to be a beast!

[millerda68]

Sorry to hear this. Unfortunately, I think it's just a fact of life in boating that there are lot of people out there with no common sense or are just purposely irresponsible/wreckless. For example, in just one hour on our local lake Saturday, we witnessed the following:

1. A boat wakesurfing against traffic (our lake is counter clockwise only when towing).
2. A boat following us too closely as we were pulling three kids under 10 on a tube.
3. A PWC crossing our wake back and forth as we were wakesurfing. I honked the horn and we were waving frantically to get her attention and she newer saw or heard us. Total tunnel vision.
4. Got cut off while wakeboarding causing my son to come to an emergency stop. The offending boat was also towing a rider and when their rider crashed, they turned to starboard and toward us instead of to port away from us.

My son who is 15 and has been (legally) driving my boat for a couple of years now under my supervision, said it best. He said the hard part about learning to drive a boat is having to deal with all the people that are doing things they are not supposed to be doing.

We are always on our guard out on the lake because you never know what the next idiot is going to do.

Sorry for the rant.

Al

Sounds like Hagg Lake?? From our experiences, that sounds like a typical Saturday. We see that kind of behavior frequently and wonder why the Sheriff does not take action. Also add in the nut jobs doing 30+ through the no wake zones.

My son has been driving for 6 years now and on those days he refuses to drive. We typically pull off and just swim in the no wake zone and out of the middle to avoid the yah-hoos not paying attention. The fortunate thing is we are 30 minutes drive way to boat ramp, so if it is too crazy we just pull out. No point in risking anything.

[cab13367]

Yup, that was at Hagg Saturday. We boarded and surfed early then spent most of the day anchored in a cove, other than tubing for about 30 minutes in the afternoon.

[KSmith]

We tend to avoid the lake at peak traffic times. We will go out early or late on the weekends and at times find ourselves out in high traffic times but we too will find a quite cove that is too small for and skiing/boarding and anchor then just swim and soak up the sun. My wife will not drive when the lake has high traffic and tons of idgets. She really hates trying to load the boat when the lauch area is infested with lake lice and clueless souls... can't blame her really, we have seen more than our share of poor judgement, careless or inattentive, clueless as to navigational rules and regs, and operators that for whatever reason feel the rules and regulations do not apply to them...

During our annual visit to Idaho this year a young girl was killed on the reservoir we had just been out on with myt brother and his familiy. It is a flooded river channel really, so somewhat narrow in places and winding. Evidently the towing boat was running close to the middle of the channel with two young girls on the tube and came around a corner and side swiped an oncoming boat, somehow during the incident one girl on the tube was hurt the other died...

I wouldn't mind seeing mandatory training for both boats and PWC. Some say it may hot help. I suspect it would help, it wouldn't solve the problem but it can't hurt to have better trained and educated operators out there. We will never out number the idgets, but any increase in good operators is a reduction in bad operators I would think... I have a little quiz I made up that covers the basic boating safety and navigational rules/regs that operators of my boat take at the start of each season, which is really only my wife, my son and myself, but I do think it helps...

[jmvotto]

Sorry to hear this. Unfortunately, I think it's just a fact of life in boating that there are lot of people out there with no common sense or are just purposely irresponsible/wreckless. For example, in just one hour on our local lake Saturday, we witnessed the following:

1. A boat wakesurfing against traffic (our lake is counter clockwise only when towing).
2. A boat following us too closely as we were pulling three kids under 10 on a tube.
3. A PWC crossing our wake back and forth as we were wakesurfing. I honked the horn and we were waving frantically to get her attention and she newer saw or heard us. Total tunnel vision.
4. Got cut off while wakeboarding causing my son to come to an emergency stop. The offending boat was also towing a rider and when their rider crashed, they turned to starboard and toward us instead of to port away from us.

My son who is 15 and has been (legally) driving my boat for a couple of years now under my supervision, said it best. He said the hard part about learning to drive a boat is having to deal with all the people that are doing things they are not supposed to be doing.

We are always on our guard out on the lake because you never know what the next idiot is going to do.

Sorry for the rant.

Al

Al, get yourself the ws420 or the krypt 4200 eq to yell at the morons on the lake when they are dangerously close to your family.


it does not always work but certainly gets there attention.

[wolfeman131]

so does a paintball gun dialed in @ 100ft which is the legal limit one must keep between vessels in GA.

I have one of the larger handheld airhorns in the forward cupholder by my feet and it really works at getting the moron's attention.

[mmandley]

First on the boat hitting the wave runner, as i recall the Boat has the right of way unless the wave runner is towing someone due to it being the bigger vessel. No this doesnt excuse what happened just pointing it out.

As for the idoits on Hagg yes they are present on the weekends and hince why we tend to not go out as much on Sunday. Even this past Sunday when we did go out it was stupid crazy out, the boats criss crossing made the water so miserable i couldnt even ballast the boat in feaar of a roller comming over from some of the boats buzzing by 15 ft away. We had some huge rollers from I/O boats that were comming so close to us at different times.

I prefer to goto the bigger lakes but there a farther drive, and honeslty im afraid of the river on weekends due to lots of boats and less clearence with the narrowness of the river and trees/sticks on the sides.

[loudsubz]

Its sad that someone lost their life due to a boating accident....it is also sad that people have the audacity to think that PWC's should not belong on a lake because of other peoples actions.

I wonder how some would feel if wakeboard boats had a really bad rap...Im sure you guys would be trying to prove it otherwise... Its a fact of life, there is going to be bad seeds in every case...no need to label them any different.

We own a PWC and also a wakeboard Boat. I have seen my share of bad driving on both, but I don't go posting on PWC forums telling them to take a hike and stop coming on the lakes etc...

[T100]

UPDATE TO STORY PLEASE READ & WATCH

http://www.castanet.net/edition/news-story-64166-1-.htm#64166http://www.castanet.net/edition/news-story-64166-1-.htm#64166http://www.castanet.net/edition/news-story-64166-1-.htm#64166