re: Bass fisherman indicated after deaths on Lake Smith during tournament

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The tournament organizers are also going to wind up paying a bunch or going out of business

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From the article...

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The lawsuits allege that the tournament officials encouraged boaters to race to their fishing spots at excessive rates of speed and in dangerous and hazardous conditions with no safety plan in place.

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A boater should be in control of his boat no matter how badly or quickly he wants to get to his next fishing spot. This kind of finger pointing is ridiculous. Bass tournaments with similar formats were happening injury free every week until this idiot decided to go 67 without looking where he was going.

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I believe the tournament owner will be hard pressed to get eliminated from this suit. Also bet they has some culpability with the speed issue.

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I just don't see it.

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discovery is going to sink them.

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What do you think will come out?

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Years of races will prove the tournament /directors knew or should’ve know of careless or reckless driving.

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I have no idea what you mean by this.

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I bet you can find YouTube vids showing typical bass tournament reckless driving.

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maybe?

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Play those for a jury. Add the TV screens impeding/obstructing drivers vision and I think they get hammered by a jury.

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I would think the organization would get out on summary judgment before the case ever went to a jury. What would the basis for liability be?

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It's surprising it doesn't happen more often with all the distractions available to mariners now.

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Years ago, I was fishing at the mouth of a short dead-end canal south of the IC about half way to Lake Theriot. I heard a boat screaming arse down headed my way. My fishing buddy yells, "FUUUUUUCKKK!" just as the dumbass boater tries to right-turn right into where we were -- damn near Flint Davis'd us.

Fortunately, the driver saw us at the last minute and cut the wheel, ended up halfway up the bank. His partner was thrown over the boat and landed in soft mud.

This MFer starts yelling at me for fishing in the boating lane. I told him to look around, the canal is so short, had he not avoided my boat and ended up where he was, he would have full-speed slammed into row of trees about 100' away.

His partner yells at him something like, "You turned in the wrong canal you drunk fricker!"

We helped pull them back into the water, luckily, he had lost most of his speed by the time he hit the bank. Turns out, they were both drunk and crossed up and lost. I wanted to leave their asses hi and dry, but I was taught to never leave a boater in duress. My buddy wanted to drive their boat back, but they wouldn't have it. They cranked up and took off. Boat, a 20' Blazer was pretty banged up.

We fished a couple of more hours trying to let the adrenaline drain work out of our systems. Got back to Bob's marina and loaded up. Was about to pull out, just in time to see Green Jeans show up towing the blazer with both guys sitting in green jeans boat. Both in cuffs.

Apparently, green jeans found them on the water beating each other's asses.

Anyway, don't fricking drive like a lunatic.

I hate that the video has made it on to the internet, but I guess it was inevitable.

My uncle is the fisherman on the front of the boat in the recorded video. He’s been pretty messed up since having to witness it and try and render first aid to the guys who were hit. And he was a homicide detective for Atlanta PD for 20 years so he’s seen some grotesque stuff over the years. He managed to get two of the guys out of the water and dove multiple times trying to get to the third victim. Just a messed up situation all around

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67 on water is hauling fricking arse Yes boats can go faster but that’s moving on water

Downvote away but wouldn’t be a terrible thing to out a 50 mph speed limit on waterways in areas of certain populari

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Did I not say that? Its not like he was going as fast as any boat out there, that WAS my point. That IS the truth. There's boats pushing 100mph. Freeman is advertising 42 ft boats going over 70.

ETA: I don't know this lake, but there's plenty of lakes that routinely have cigar boats going 100+.

The guy is guilty. But my point is while that is fast, guys are going nearly 2X that speed all the time.

In my masters upgrade class we had to review the duck boat sinking on lake Hamilton. Investigators Always look for the Primary cause and work any other causes into the report.
Duckboat sank due to a sleeve coming off the drive shaft allowing water intrusion. Bilge pump was defective and couldn’t evacuate enough water to save boat.

Distracted driving IS the primary cause of this crash.

Speed would be a secondary cause, out driving his capabilities.

Last imo would be the mentality that since everyone drives wot it is/was an acceptable practice.

Entry fees for tournaments will be increasing to pay for the increased premiums organizers are about to pay.

Wouldn’t change a thing.

My bet is he was trying to shortcut a blind corner and was worried about getting too shallow. Paying too much attention to mapping and not enough to conditions/boat traffic. A pilot would call this losing SA (situal awareness)

Nonetheless three men are dead for the young mans careless actions.


And FWIW I can speak a bit of speed on the water as my Cat/250 combo is capable of 79 (81 with a better driver) so I have a little experience with this.
Not to mention a collision at 35 is probably just as likely to have nearly the same effect.

Im honestly surprised the driver of the boat that hit the others survived that.