black box data log

I was involved in a bad boating accident a few weeks ago when a bass boat collided with us at night. he did not seem to have his lights on and was traveling around 60. His passenger died (v.p. of searay) I was doing around 20-25. twra has had my boat for close to three weeks, I had it for three days 2002 tige 20v. Twra claims that they are trying to check the black box for info on how fast we were going etc. does anyone know if wake boats even have one of these?

Sorry to hear about the accident, that's terrible. Prayers for the Searay guy's family and I hope everyone else is ok.
If your boat is EFI, then the ECM stores run-time data. Max rpms, operating hours, engine timing curves, etc. I am not sure if it stores comprehensive real time data, I would think not. Cars don't.

if the state has your boat and you want it back depending on how long they have had it for id look into a lawyer and make the state pay your attorneys fees...depending on how the accident is ruled. sounds to me like your up a creek without a paddle. Good luck on getting your boat back though.

Wow, so was everybody on your boat ok? How did they hit you, what area of your boat? Did they go over you, under, right into?

hey brandon, i was out on douglas that night. is your boat white with the yellow stripes? i saw someone teaching a young girl to board earlier in the day up towards the willlows on flat creek in a tige.

accidents do happen and i have come up on a few fishermen with their lights off many times on douglas.

i hate to ask, but who had the right-of-way? ie did the bass boat hit you on the left/port side?

Thomas, my boat is white with red/blue stripes

we were traveling in the 20-25 mph range with our lights on when out of no where i see a purple light (black light) traveling really fast about 20 feet away from us. they came from the left side of the boat 8-9:00 position. All i remember was seeing his black light and at the last milli second his dash lights and interior light. They hit the bow eye first then traveled under my boat sideways taking out two scags with the outboard and leaving a few holes leading to them. The passenger that died was sitting in the front facing backwards in the 20 foot bullet bassboat (xr5 merc offshore racing engine-modified foot-high speed prop-and a hydraulic jack plate in the go fast position) from what i hear he claims he was doing 25 (yeah right!!). the passengers head apperently hit the bow eye, creating a large hole in the back of his head. The driver was badly hurt but is stable from what i hear. Thank god that no one was hurt in my boat, I was sitting on top of the bolster seat and the impact threw me into the left rear of the boat and two girls bumped heads. I had an ivestigator look at the boats a week ago- he says they were doing 60-70mph and all of the damage indicates we were not at fault. Of course the media made it sound like we ran over a few old men fishing and that alchohol could be involved.I had insurance on the boat and they are providing a lawyer. as far as getting to ride before winter-- It's not looking good.

Brandon,
we had an accident similar to yours execpt the fishing boat was making circles around a teenager driving slow in a no wake zone and the drunken fisherman ran into the boat. The media covered it to say the kid should have not been driving a boat. Good luck with everything, as an engineer I know it should be very easy to prove who was going what speed with the damage that occured.

This is one of my fears.Keep us informed.I do alot of night driving and do come across boats with o lights all the time.The last time I had a close call.the next day I bought a 2 million candle power light and make my passengers play with it when we cross the lake.It puts out a strong beam and makes others on the lake aware of our position...this is for future travlers..sorry someone was hurt/killed.

yo man, give me a heads up after ivan rolls thru. chilhowee or norris. louden smells like a toilet right now.

Even in cars the airbag and seat belt retention system are usually the only devices that store any sort of "black box" type data.

When your airbag deployes or the seat belt retainer is fired, the SRS ECM stores data about the event, time, speed...

Other than purpose built devices for cars (like rental cars, comerical trucks...) I've never heard of a passenger boat engine storing data like this.

Get a lawyer and wow what a bad deal for everyone. A little safety does go such long way in preventing things like this.

Holy cow, if he was really doing 60-70 at NIGHT, he's an idiot,and deserves to have manslaughter charges filed.

It seems not a year goes by where someone on lake Travis here in ATX, doesn't run aground, into someone, etc. doing 60 mph in the middle of the night.

Did your boat sink, did theirs, etc? I can't imagine the scene in the middle of the lake when all this happened, how did you summon help?

Hope it all works out man, keep us posted.

Actuall the tige barely took on water even after three holes where put in it from the initial impact and form their outboard. the drive shaft,prop,and rudder of my boat where untouched-- we drove over to the bass boat after the collision and I jumped aboard. we called 911 and a few minutes later two boats were heading in or direction so we flagged them down to get help.they called twra direct phone and i got a bag of ice for the passengers head--and then they left because they had to catch some fish for a tournament?? the bass boat did not sink, most of the damage is above the bumper molding mostly on the driver side.

Wow, they had a very bad accident on the Colorado River a few weeks back. Go fast jet boat at 3:00 am ran into a bridge support for Highway 40. 7 0r 8 on board and 4 died. They think they were going around 30 to 40 mph and the driver was booked on mansluaghter and OUI.

Brandon I would be careful what you post here publically. Not that you have said anything that could hurt any possible case against you to this point. But it's easy to say something that can be taken out of context, or any incocent statement that can be turned around to hurt you. I know on the Hotboat discussion board attourneys have gone on there and used things people have said in a discussion board against them.

Good luck with it all!

Brandon,

I have to agree with Frenchie. I'm sure the bassboaters' attorneys are hoping to find anything to twist comments out of context and use them against you.

I feel for you in this tragedy and hope you can deal with it and put it behind you quickly.

damn fishermen... j/k sorry, hope everything works out, good luck

Sorry to hear about the accident, but clearly you will not be found at fault. The major factor here is where the boat hit you - on the left side. Clearly you had the right of way in that situation. Not having his lights on just makes it easier for you to argue that you had no time to avoid a collision.

If he had stuck you in the 12-4 o'clock range (bow to starboard side) then you would have a much harder time proving that he didn't have his lights on and that was why you didn't yield the right of way.

BTW beyond your standard navigation lights "red/green and white in back" you are not required to have any additional lights. In fact spot lights are in general frowned upon unless you only use them to spot hazards and turn them off quickly. Also under no circumstances are you supposed to shine them at other boats, if you do it should be very quickly. Otherwise you might blind the other boater causing them to run into a hazard. In general you are supposed to rely on your night vision.

I am not sure if your lake has a speed limit. Most do, but on the Colorado River they don't. You just have to not go over a speed that is unsafe for conditions. PRetty loose interpetation, but you can be sure if you crash they will consider it unsafe not matter what speed.

I guess the key here is the fact he ran into you. One possible problem "BTW I am not an attourney but I "play" one on the Internet LOL" is the passenger that died could sue both of you. They might find some percentage of the fault lies on you. Like 20/80 20 percent for you and you would have to cover 20% of the judgement. So it's very good you have an attourney now.