Re: Fatal Crash, 18' bowrider head on into houseboat in the dark
What a terrible crash. We had a fatal wreck here over the fourth, too. Different circumstance entirely, though.
A good boater will assume there are unlit objects out there. While you should never use headlights on a boat, the analogy is sound--don't overdrive your visibility. I have spent a lot of my life drivnig small boats in some of the darkest stretches of coastal marsh ever and I know.
Fourth of July night, I went out and saw fireworks by boat and had about a 10 mile run home in a busy seaport harbor. There were at least 50 boats anchored or milling about in the pitch black bay (very dark night, if you recall). Then a stream of baots going home. Most people had legal lights but my opinion is: legal is sometimes not enough. That one little white bulb 30 feet up a sailboat mast or on top of a 30' cabin cruiser serves no safe purpose at all in a busy area with lots of shore lights. Those captains, I think, have a duty to display additional lights, such as spreaders or hulls or cabins (but not bow lights when you aren't moving--another unsafe practice.
So I'm not saying the houseboat captain was at fault at all. he is purely a victim. Let's say he had that one little white light in the middle of the 30' by 14' boat's roof. In hindsight, he would be alive if he took measures to protect himself from other's stupidity.
Frankly I think the "one light" rule needs to be changed.
Oh, and when I boat in dark waters, a spotlight shined on me is extenquished with a bullet. That light is as dangerous to me as shooting at me. Never shine a light on someone's cockpit area at night.
