Motor-boat strikes a kayak and paddle-boat in Kingston causing injuries
A kayaker and two paddle-boaters were injured Friday when they were struck by a motor boat allegedly driven by an intoxicated man in Kingston, police said.
Members of state, county and local agencies responded to Smelt Pond just before 5:30 p.m. for the accident, according to Kingston Police Sergeant Zachary Potrykus.
Upon arrival, authorities determined that the motor boat, driven by Joseph Carroll, 37, of Florida, struck and capsized a kayak and a two-person paddle-boat, and barely missed a canoe, Potrykus said.
State environmental police arrested Carroll charged him with driving a boat under the influence of alcohol causing serious injury and unsafe operation of a boat, according to Potrykus.
Police said the 41-year-old man in the kayak suffered a non-life-threatening, but serious, head injury, and the two women in the paddle-boat, who were in their mid-twenties, suffered minor injuries. The man and one of the women were transported to Jordan Hospital.
Carroll is to be arraigned Monday morning in Plymouth County District Court. The incident remains under investigation.
http://boston.com/metrodesk/2013/07/06/motor-boat-strikes-kayak-and-paddle-boat-kingston-causing-injuries/Yey9NFdaJEUZ4eE6XXN0bI/story.html
You must mean for the motorboat
drivers to be careful, because paddlecraft seldom are able to evade careening powerboats.
I sculled on the Charles for a number of years, and when spring weather warmed enough to bring out the powerboats, the only solution was for me to scull about 6 AM.
an intoxicated powerboater??
no way!
Reducing Risk
I like to be off the water by 1:00 or 2:00 PM. Drunks tend to start getting pretty high then. I never ride my road bicycle on a Friday or Saturday afternoon for the same reason.
Not only drunks … “novices” too …
A few days ago, I begin to notice this boat, coming up behind me, going slow, a tad faster than me, paralleling my course, maybe 200 feet away. One of those open type center consol outboards, square front, maybe 18 to 21 foot. Trailerable kind of boat, coming from a public ramp area. Nice big canopy top to keep the sun off dad as well as the back sitting area, mom sunning herself in the front, fishing poles off the back, one with line in the water, and two kids hanging on as the boat rolled in the 1 - 2 foot swells.
I’m in close to shore, parallel to the shoreline. Begin to realize this guy is closing the gap, that we’re heading for the same spot, a point of land with a large private boat dock, with a few folks fishing off it. One of us has to slow down, and since he’s taking no note of me, and is going a little faster, I eased up on the pace. But he is slowing down too, coming right across my bow. He’s about 50 feet away now, and the whole time has not looked once in my direction.
Figured I’d better stop.
The guy realizes he’s coming in to fast, and thumps the thing in reverse, no pause in neutral, and guns it. Kids start yelling, as water from the rollers comes over the transom, and mom, laying across the front deck area, has to quickly hang on. Dad puts it into neutral, and takes the other rod and casts right on top of the lines of some of the guys fishing from the dock.
That’s when I figured out what he was doing: he’s got a whole bay to fish in, but saw the dock and guys fishing, so he made a bee line towards it. Literally. Would have run me right over.
But this is not a lake, as dad realizes the boat is not staying where he put it, and is moving towards the dock. Guess he hadn’t figured on the tide and rollers. So he swings the boat around, cuts the line he had been dragging.
I watched this for a bit, as dad tried to fish, handle his small boat in conditions he clearly had no experience in, all the while trying his best to appear cool and confident as mom complained about the bouncing and the kids, being taught how to fish, did not seem to pay all that much attention as they hung on tightly to the canopy.
Fortunately the current and wind moved him past the dock in short order, in towards where some boats are moored, so I could get around him. It also exposed him to more of the rollers coming in from the bay. The guy tried a few more times to put his boat in the position he wanted, just off the dock, but without success. So after a bit he high tailed it back towards the more sheltered area near where he put in.
Neatly stencilled on the stern of the boat was the little central Massachusetts town I guess they came from. I know the town, and the local lake; no tide, and what waves there are come from boats. Probably rented a summer cottage, and took the boat down too.
No alcohol involved, and before noon time too.