Tragedy in Jax 5 killed .....

[offthefront]

Pray for the Victims and Families .....


5 Dead, 9 Hurt In Boating Accident

POSTED: Sunday, April 12, 2009
UPDATED: 10:27 pm EDT April 12, 2009



PALM VALLEY, Fla. -- Five people were killed and seven others transported to area hospitals after a boat hit a tugboat in the Intracoastal Waterway in St. Johns County early Sunday evening.

According to St. Johns County Fire-Rescue spokesman Jeremy Robshaw, a 22-foot boat with 12 people on board hit a 25-foot tub boat in the Intracoastal Waterway near the 200 block of Roscoe Boulevard -- about one mile north of the Palm Valley Bridge -- just after 7 p.m.

All those injured were transported to Jacksonville-area hospitals -- the three most seriously injured transported by air ambulance.



http://www.news4jax.com/news/19163055/detail.html

[Cash Bar]

Ohh no.... :(

[MetalBrosRacing]

14 people on board wtf!!!!!!!

[nortech4play]

Very Sad....RIP....

[Bella Senorita]

12 people on board a little 22????

[RPM]

12 people on board a little 22????

My thoughts exactly....

[safa 1]

My thoughts exactly....
x3 , very sad prayers goes out to the family's

[Dreamer]

and it looks like a speedboat so...................................

[BOJOE2]

:( :(

[BLAZE]

:(:(:(

[Tom A.]

Very Sad. 14 people in the boat as per that report!
Prayers to the families and friends.

[Trim'd Up]

Geez, I B!tch when I have more than 4 or 5 people in my boat. RIP

[Ratickle]

Some things you just wonder What The Heck?

Sad.

[MattBMiller]

12 people on board a little 22????

How....??


RIP. Prayers to the families.

[Sean Stinson]

RIP and prayers to the families

[DollaBill]

RIP. Any word on who's boat it was? Looks l ike a PQ. Just saw it in the news.

[gerritm]

I saw on report and they said it was a 22' Crownline. I had one and I can't picture ever fitting 12-14 people on board.The most I have ever had on mine was 8 and four of them were kids. RIP.

[cigdaze]

How terribly sad. May they RIP, and recover.

The article says it happened at 7:00pm, which is essentially daylight. How in the world?...

:( :(

[PARADOX]

Condolances and best to the rest.

[McGary911]

Sundown wasn't until almost 8pm and it was a clear day. Sad. Apparently it was a bunch (too many) of young people on board.

Condolences to friends and families.

[boomer35]

i know it was "reggea sunday" down in st augustine at the conch house yesturday. this is a huge event with lots of boozing. i hope that wasnt a factor, either way its truly a sad day, RIP

[Sydwayz]

It looks like a Crownline or a Caravelle. Some of the comments on the news website point toward witnessed speeding. Other comments are such that the victims are teenagers and young 20s.

[Pro1]

"Investigators are looking at anything that may have caused this," Hill said, including the speed and capacity of the boat, lighting conditions and whether alcohol may have been a factor.

[McGary911]

More.......

http://www.jacksonville.com/news/metro/2009-04-13/story/boat_slams_into_tug_in_st_johns_killing_5_injuring_9

[Ratickle]

More.......

http://www.jacksonville.com/news/metro/2009-04-13/story/boat_slams_into_tug_in_st_johns_killing_5_injuring_9

Wow, and there certainly are some rude comments on there...


Hope the rest recover fully.

[Chris]

I'm hearing it was a boatload of kids (not little ones, young people)

[gerritm]

I had that exact same boat. It was our ski boat. I always marveled at the fact that the capacity plate said 12 people. I don't remember the total weight, but it would have been 12 very small people. I can't even imagine squeezing that many young adults on it. Great little boat, very shallow draft, 16 degrees deadrise, if I remember right. Ours had a SB-350 mag motor and alpha drive. It would run 48 mph on a good day with a light load and flat water. Did not handle or ride well in any kind of waves. I can see how it would have run right up on the barge. Terrible tragedy.

[Sydwayz]

Boat accidents are always bloody. This is a sad sight; especially knowing they were kids and this was probably preventable. ( The news site just above has an even bigger picture, but this size was sobering enough. )

http://www.jacksonville.com/files/editorial/images/additional/47/met_5BoatAccident041.jpg

[Knot 4 Me]

I had a 266 Crownline open bow and I cannot imagine trying to squeeze 14 people on that boat, let alone a 225. Condolences to the friends and families that lost loved ones and hope for a speedy recovery for those injured.

[rob]

Sad....

[mosi]

Unfortunatly I have feeling the phrase, "hand me another beer" may have been used on that trip.

[MacGyver]

Oshier, 25, said one of the survivors told him that a woman the group picked up at the restaurant was driving the boat, though the boat owner was aboard. He said he was told it came "around" after passing the Palm Valley bridge and the accident happened moments later.

There is no real bend in the area of the accident. That area is a straight-away known by boaters as "the ditch" because the man-made channel narrows.

The boat struck the tug, which was alongside a barge that was helping build a dock for a home under construction off Roscoe Road. Oshier said a friend of his on the boat was alerted about trouble just before the crash.

“He [the survivor] said the lady yelled my friend’s name and he looked up and they were heading right for it,” Oshier said. “He tried to steer away, but it was too late.”


Sounds like driver inexperience. She (the driver) panicked and the owner didn't have time to intervene and steer away or stop.

Sad.........

[boot-e-licious]

my condolences,i run that route all the time and went by there saturday, i know that area quite well. i run that area rather slow, during the weekends there is a ton of traffic in a 150' width. but later in the day its not that bad. i have talked to some friends about what happened, lots of spectulation. from what i hear they were coming back from a place that has a sunday event and some witnesses say they were drinking. some locals and some visiting. i know the barge that they hit and i cant see how they hit it the way they did, without some type of confusion, overloading, and operater error.

[mcraymond3]

so sad.

[Wylie-Rat]

I really feel for all of the family members and loved ones involved - This is really sad...

[cigdaze]

Looks like the NTSB's getting involved in this one. I can't think of another time that they got involved with a private boat accident. Is this normal?

National Briefing | South
Florida: Inquiry Into Boat Crash That Killed 5

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: April 13, 2009

The National Transportation Safety Board has begun an investigation of the power boat accident that killed five people and injured nine on the state’s Atlantic coast. A safety board member, Deborah A. P. Hersman, said there were 14 people in the 22-foot power boat that crashed into the rear of a tug about 7 p.m. Sunday near Palm Valley in St. Johns County, about 25 miles southeast of Jacksonville. Investigators had earlier said 12 people were aboard the boat. Ms. Hersman said that the board did not investigate many boating accidents, but that this case with five deaths and nine injuries met the agency’s criteria for a serious accident that warranted special attention. Six accident victims are being treated at Shands Jacksonville hospital. Two were in critical condition, one was in serious condition and three were in fair condition. The authorities have not said where the other survivors were being treated.

[Chris]

I try to think about these events any time I'm getting hassled by the water cops.

There are so many inattentive, incompetent and intoxicated boaters on the water that it's almost unimaginable. Having to deal with it has to be a very trying occupation. To have to fish dead kids out of the water can't be much fun. I know there's good and bad in the profession, like all professions. But I've gotta tell you, just from what I've seen on the water, I'd want to beat some of them over the head with a club.

[cigdaze]

I try to think about these events any time I'm getting hassled by the water cops.

There are so many inattentive, incompetent and intoxicated boaters on the water that it's almost unimaginable. Having to deal with it has to be a very trying occupation. To have to fish dead kids out of the water can't be much fun. I know there's good and bad in the profession, like all professions. But I've gotta tell you, just from what I've seen on the water, I'd want to beat some of them over the head with a club.

I read an article this morning about the first responder's accounts and it wasn't pretty. I didn't post it because it's pretty upsetting. I couldn't imagine having to be there that night. :(

[Sea-Dated]

Very Sad

RIP

[cuda]

I try to think about these events any time I'm getting hassled by the water cops.

There are so many inattentive, incompetent and intoxicated boaters on the water that it's almost unimaginable. Having to deal with it has to be a very trying occupation. To have to fish dead kids out of the water can't be much fun. I know there's good and bad in the profession, like all professions. But I've gotta tell you, just from what I've seen on the water, I'd want to beat some of them over the head with a club.

That's true. The club I used to run poker runs with didn't require lifejackets to be worn, that made me be the bad guy, because I told all passengers they could either wear a lifejacket, or stay on the dock. Either choice was fine by me.

[ItsPeanut]

Seen where the accident happened and it was definetly operator error. I know they came from the conch house and every time i went their it was a party. They did this run weekly and always maxxed the boat out. Crownline came out with a statement that said the boat was intended for 12. 14 people on a 22 foot boat, thats a magic trick. The whole thing sucks but its people like that that ruin it for everybody else. The owner of the boat maxxed it out every trip and they were pulled over more than once about the amount on the boat. They always raved about a sober driver on board. Maybe this time it wasnt the case. They apparently picked up some body trainer chick and asked her to drive the boat. Bad loss for the families but it sounds like it was accident waiting to happen.

[phragle]

Downtown toledo last year for the 4th of july fireworks, saw a litlle maybe 17~18 foot bowrider with 17 ( we counted ) people on it, the waterline was at the damn rubrail...watercops went up to them...only thing they cared about was checking that there were enough life jackets., the same water cops won't hesitate to write you for even having a beer in th line of site of the operator at anchor. ( I am not advocating drunken boating) but you should be able to relax.