skier got ran over

My daugter rented a boat to a couple yesterday and they were sking and the girl fell. Well another boat was following right behind them and didnt see her and ran her over and killed her. It is awfull. Were the people following her just big idiots? When you fall in the water do you do anything like raise your arm so you can be more visable?

First of all you don't let other boat follow closely in the first place. If they are you change course. Did they have a safety flag? This is terrible, I read another story where a lady got her leg cut off below the knee while loading crap into the boat. There are some real idiots out there with boats.

Yes the people were following too close and paying attention - they are liable for this accident if the facts are as you say.

As there are idiots around if I fall down and there are people nearby I usually lift by board up (vertical in the water) so there is as large an object as possible for them to see.

If you run over a skier, it is your fault. They were either following too closely, or not paying attention. Either way, they are at fault.


I feel for both families, as that is a horrible accident.

Wow, sucks to hear about these kind of things. I feel worse for the family of the girl than the family of the one that ran her over. If you don't have enough common sense to NOT follow a boat and be right on top of it. IMO you are inviting trouble and you deserve the outcome. I feel bad that this little girl had to lose her life in this way. A tragic accident that never should have happened. How come none of the boat rental places have a required safety course before you get the boat? (I'm unaware if they do or not) Seems like a no brainer to me.

Terrible.

If a boat comes directly behind me, I change course immediately. If they follow I get to a safe spot and cut the engines and power turn for my rider.

If I fall I've always been taught to hold a ski or board up in the air for visibility. I still stick my baby blue surf board 3 feet while the boat comes around as you can't power turn with ballast safely.

I will say jet skiers are the worst when they try to jump our wake.

That is an awful story. Some people are just really stupid and clueless out on the water. Whenever there is a jetskier following me or anybody else when we're riding I make sure to let them know they better find someone else's waves to jump. I live on a private lake and see the same people who are out everyday and still not know what they're doing, I can't imagine being on public water with people who are renting boats and really don't know what they are doing.

ramon, where did this happen at?

very sad story.

I am pretty sure he is talking about this. It happened up here in WI. I heard it on the news yesterday. I can't even imagine how bad that must have been.

http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=news/local&id=6234891

"Police say a storm was approaching at the time and waves were two to six feet high"
Really? 6 ft waves?

Lake Geneva can get VERY gnarly. It's big lake and there are many oversized boats. If those big bastards started hauling butt to get home they can really whip it up good. I was on it Tuesday when the storm came in and it got pretty ugly fairly quick. Of course, we didn't keep pulling anybody in that kind of water! That's dumb.

thats awful but am not surprised it happened on Lake Geneva. For people that don't know much about the lake its a huge tourist lake and attracts some of the dumbest boaters that have no idea how dangerous it can be.

"Alcohol was not likely a factor, and no charges are expected."

WTF!!!!!!!!!!!!

As a driver, I make an agressive turn immediately after the skier falls down. I try to place my boat between any oncomming traffic an my skier. I know that it was impossible in this case, but it has saved some accidents in my years of driving.

"Alcohol was not likely a factor, and no charges are expected."

WTF!!!!!!!!!!!!


i was thinking the same thing.

Thats because they didn't do anything criminal. Accidents do happen. Its up to the family to pursue in Civil court if they wish.

Yes, accidents do happen, and so stupidity should be a crime. .... With that said, if you rear end someone in your car. Not only do you get charged with the accident, but you get a ticket, for following too close.

.... Put those two together, and the driver should at least be charged with involuntary manslaughter or something.

Accidents happen without someone being cited all the time, even rear-enders. A police report describing the conditions of an incident, and being cited or charged are very different things.

nbeihl - Wrong thread for this discussion, but what you describe is unsafe and generally considered bad driving.

My home lake is small and has a direction to drive around the center island. This weekend we had some idiots in a brand new boat pulling a tube from the tower going the wrong direction and cutting in and out of everyone. Diddnt even see my rider and cut across my wake. He actually had to let go of the rope so he wasnt hit. We tried to chase the other boat down and found them on the backside of the lake with a broken tower (got what they deserved). It seems like there are more and more idiots out there. I am fairly new to the sport and have only owned a boat for 3 years but I did spend a lot of time on this site and others like it to get a general feel for issues people have on the water. My thoughts and prayrs go out to all parties involved. The driver is totally stupid but he also has to live with taking anothers life. Hopefully the story will help others realize the dangers involved on the water if you dont take the proper precautions.

Something about that news story seems wrong.

She was wakeboarding in 2-3 foot waves? That hardly sounds doable. And the 2-3 foot waves didn't allow the boater to see the lady in the water?

What about a flag?

How far did the boat ride off before turning back for the rider? How did the driver not see another boat heading back to pick someone up? How was the boat that ran her over so close but didn't see her riding before she went down?

Something sounds really weird about this one.

Wisconsin. No flags required.

Lake Geneva is large and deep. Almost unusable for wakeboarding unless first thing in the morning. Lots of very large boats - 60' range.

If this were on a US water (federal), the captain could be charged with failure to keep a proper watch. It is up to the local jurisdiction to decide what will be the proper action.

I do have a friend who killed a fallen tuber. First time in a boat - enough said. He has yet to set foot in another boat. It haunts him over a decade later.

the witnesses said that the boat that ran her over were sight seeing. There are very, very large homes on lake geneva. By the way the boat rental company reimbursed them of all charges, not that the $ was the biggest concern here.

Ignorance shoud be painful!

What good is charging this person going to do? The family will go after civil charges no doubt. Is this person going to jail going to solve anything? No.
I am on this lake (Lake Genveva) a couple times per week. It is my opinion the boat rental business should be SHUT DOWN!!! I can't tell you how many OBVIOUSLY ignorant renters they turn loose on the lake-no safety class, no ride along for demonstration, no CLUE! Hell, I can't even tell you how many times I've seen and dealt with folks in the rented boats who looked at me like I'm from outerspace because I was speaking English. If you can't speak English, how can you read it and how can you boat safely?? Boats can be very dangerous (duuhh)why can any a-hole go rent one with nothing more than a credit card, but to rent a car requires so much more? Renters should be required to take safety courses and speak English....is that too much to ask? Probably would save a lot of trouble. I sincerely hope that rental business gets sued out of existence, we'll all be safer for it.

it wasn't the rented boat that ran her over.

It is really odd to me, though, that you can just walk up and rent a boat without any training, but you have to take lessons for stuff like skydiving and scuba, where the only person you can kill is usually yourself.

What a horrible situation, I feel for all involved.

hate to here this, but we can try to learn from it.

I have a signal to my rider to let them know to hang on and keep watch if someone is following closely or closing the distance quickly. basically it's two fists next to each other meaning hang on to the rope and watch. it doesn't matter what the sign is - just that it alerts your rider to what's going on behind them.

if you're in the water and a boat is approaching, I've found that splashing water as high as possible is the best way to get someone on the approaching boat's attention.

sorry to here about the young lady getting killed. sounds like a big ol' lake where you're gonna have 2-3' swells from large vessels and a long wind fetch on the regular.

I think we all know how dangerous this sport is. Are there any other sports where you get pulled by a 3-5k vehicle? On occation we hook up the rope to my truck and pull on skateboards which is a bad idea all together. No matter how upset we get about it its not going to change. You can send people to safety classes till they are blue in the face and will still have the idiots who dont pay attention on the water. My ex has been to many of these for driving a car but still gets in at least one accident per year because she is checking her makeup or some s@#t like that. "You cant fix stupid" some comedian said that and its true.

Edgar,
It still was somewhat of the "renters" negligence to be wakeboarding in that kind of water.

I was under the impression the renter ran her over. Either way--morale of my rant is that those damn renters area HUGE safety risk and thier actions are left unchecked by the rent staff until it's too late. Maybe now they'll have some pressure to make some overdue changes--very unfortunate it cost a young lady her life.

I allow absolutely NO BOAT, JET SKI ( most all of them on our lake are idiots they are either young or live on lake thinking they own it or week end idiots ) to follow my boat within 200 feet, and NOBODY follows my boarders , AT ALL !! NO BODY !!! and I could care less what they call me either , I call the water patrol, , 911 etc. Jesus with the familes,AMEN

Don you said it. I agree, I have just about got into fist fights about this with Jet skiers when we are surfing or boarding. There are people that think I am anal. I really don't give a flying rats A$$ what they think. My main goal is to have fun with friends at a very safe level. AMEN

I'm with you guys, i get really pissed off at people following close, I'm always waving my arms and yelling. Last Friday we were at the back of our lake and this jetski realized we had a big wake and started following us "jumping" it. When my lady friend was done this jack ass stopped and waited for us to take off again. It was nice and quiet and he got an ear full from me. He did the right thing and got the hell out of there. Clearly having others around your rider is not acceptable. I have long been an advocate for a boaters license, why in the hell do they not have it?!?! It would partially eliminate all of our biggest issues with going to the lake/river ie. uninformed jackasses, leaving us with just jackasses. I'll take it.

(Message edited by stephan on July 03, 2008)

last year when learning to board, probably my 2nd time to ever even get up i almost got run over by a jetskier and his 2 kids...not once, but TWICE in a row, by the same frickin guy


dude got an earful and i was sorry his kids were around, but I'm glad my friend (the boat driver) was sticking up for his riders

Boat licenses will be mandatory next year in Canada. Have been implementing over the last 8 years. (Yah our government doesn't do anything fast!) I already have mine and have for 6 years. I just hope rental companies don't somehow get around this and still rent out boats to people without boating licenses.

"Currently, a Pleasure Craft Operator Card is not required in order to operate a rented watercraft. Instead, it is sufficient for a renter to complete a rental safety checklist. Take note however that some companies have made it their corporate policy to require renters to have their Pleasure Craft Operator Card. Below is a sample copy of a rental safety checklist."

Brent - above is a quote from Gov of Canada FAQ on the Boater's License. So it appears that renters are excluded.

Come on being a Canadian would you expect anything different from our government !!!!!

Not only did I get my license over five year's ago I also took the Power Squadron course.

Frankly the licensing test is a joke compared to the Power Squadron course.

(Message edited by abc33660 on July 05, 2008)