<Forwarded Message>
Subject: Boat accident
Date: 8 May 2004
Coming back into the Newport Navy Base Marina today I saw a quite a
disturbing sight. There were 5 or 6 emergency vehicles with lights flashing, all the way at the end of the marina and over by the boat launch ramp (where I was
headed). When I motored closer down the long row of slips I saw fire trucks, tow
trucks, and military police vehicles all gathered together there.
The marina manager ran down to a near by dock and motioned for me to put my
boat in an open slip and shut her down. I obeyed his commands.
When I tied up and looked over at the commotion, I saw a 26-28 foot Sea Sport
boat lying on it's side at the bottom of the boat ramp! There was a SUV up on
the jersey barrier at a 90 degree angle to the ramp about 2 feet in the air
and the trailer was precariously tossed across the boat ramp sideways.
I looked back at the marina manager with shock and he explained to me what
happened. He said that some guy backed his brand new boat over to the ramp and
removed "ALL" tie down to include the bow hook. His wife climbed in the boat
and he jumped back into the truck to back her in. Before he knew what hit him,
the boat took off down the rollerized trailer and crashed on the ramp and slid
down to the water some 30 feet away! Later, I walked over to the ramp and
there was about a 6 inch wide, 30 foot long white scrape mark of gelcoat going
all the way down the ramp to where she rested on her side at the bottom. Ouch!
There had to be an enormous amount of hull damage. It looked really bad. Unreal.
Anyway, when the boat departed the trailer, the unfortunate boater attempted
to jump out of the truck and stop it. His truck then ran over him pining one
leg while the drivers side door slammed into him breaking his other leg below
the knee.
Apparently the back pressure (on the trailer), from the rapidly departing
heavy boat, forced the front of the trailer several feet into the air taking the
SUV with it. The whole rig launched into a violent jack-knife condition. The
truck came to rest (as I said) on the concrete jersey barriers along side of
the ramp some 2 feet off the deck and the trailer ended up sideways across the
whole ramp.
The Marina Manager told me he was going to wait till high tide tonight to
recover the boat. I have to wait till this whole event is over before I can
recover my boat to my trailer.
Later:
I just got back from the marina. When I got there just after nine, she was
still there on the ramp. The tide was just high enough and I watched some guys
rock her free into the water and pull her around and tie her up.
I drove home with my boat in tow in silence. I really didn't know what to say
to my wife. We do the same thing (except for the accident) all the time. She
jumps in the boat and I back her down. I can only imagine what went through
his head as his wife and new boat went bouncing down the boat launch.
I wanted to tell you all this story because I think there are some lessons to
learn here. They are quite obvious so I won't get into it. For me, all in
all, it was a very humbling experience. I was shocked at the violence that
occurs when a boat launches all by itself! I figured it would just fly off and that
would be it. I didn't realize what happens to the trailer, truck and anyone
unfortunate enough to be around the incident when that happens. I will take a
little more care (safety wise), next time I launch my boat. I didn't realize
that so much could go wrong in about three seconds. That's what a witness said
that it took, start to finish...3 seconds.