Power Turns Can Be Dangerous

[Tip]

There was a tragic accident on the Columbia River today. Yesterday we were wakeboarding on the Columbia River and had the pleasure of talking to some friendly folks on another wakeboard boat. We remember the boat because it was all woman (not that there is anything wrong with that!) and a couple of them were really good at wakeboarding and wakesurfing. Today I was watching the local news and I see this same boat (Mobius) with the same woman on the news. Evidently they were wakeboarding when the rider fell, in response the driver did a power turn (I noticed they were doing this a lot yesterday) and when she did one of the passengers fell out of the boat and was hit by the prop. Her leg was completely severed at the knee. The police searched for three hours and were not able to recover the severed leg. The driver jumped from the boat and pulled the other woman into the boat. She is in serious condition at a local hospital.

Here is my dilema, should I have said something to these folks yesterday about the hazards of doing power turns? I feel like if I had said something this accident may have been avoided. They seemed quite competent (except for the power turns) and I did want to insult them.

[Carter13]

I saw the same news clip and I can't believe the driver had any passengers sitting on the front gunnel. The gal is lucky she only lost her leg.

[chpthril]

Don't beat yourself up.

'Power turns' is not the cause of the accident, sitting on the gunnel is to blame. I dont evan let people sit on the sunpad while underway.

I feel bad for the victim and the driver.

[jeffro]

do you know if a link to the story is available from the local news sites?

i'd like to share this story if possible.

[Carter13]

Go to kgw.com it's the top story.

[Tanner]

Hmmmm, that's interesting, b/c during my demo, my dealer did a full speed power turn. I know every once in a while at the end of the day, if no one is on the water, and I only have two or three people in the boat I'll tell them to hold on w/ dear life and I'll do a power turn, just for a bit of fun. Never thought of someone getting their leg cut off. I know the boat is more than stable enough to handle it.

I'm suprised they were doing power turns while boarding. I would have been pissed if I was the boarder and my driver was the one tearing up the water.

[Coach]

I am amazed by the lack of common sense by boaters sometimes. I am not just thinking about this incident. I can think of about 3-4 times this last summer where I would see people sitting on the front a pontoon outside the front gate with the boat going in the 30-35 mph range. Or people sitting on the sundeck while the boat was moving 40+mph which is even worse than the above behind an I/O. Too bad for the lady who lost her leg, she is just luck not to have been killed.

[Tip]

I've only been wakeboarding on the Columbia for about a month so I can't speak for other water in the area but power turns to pick up riders seems to be the norm on the Columbia river. Every boat out in the Camas Slough (except me) on Saturday was doing power turns to pick up their riders. It got so bad that finally we called it quits because it was just too dangerous to ride there.

[Wake Havasu]

I do power turns and power everything - weekly.

And I will contunue to do so.

What I don't do as captain is allow anyone to sit outside the boat while doing so.

This includes gunwales, sundecks, swimdecks etc.

[NHtigefan]

A relatively minor point is that power turns produce wake, another good
reason to cut power and turn gently

[Tequilasun]

I have heard that 80% of accidents are caused by people being run over by their own boats, or the boat they were riding in.

Does your state not have a law against riding on the Gunnels/Sunpad?

Tip:

I don't think you were obligated to tell them they were doing something dangerous. Most of the time it really isn't that dangerous, but when you combine it with carelessness, bad things can happen.

[dogbert]

The almost never do a power turn. I throttle back and once I come off plane, I turn to my right or left and give it a little gas. This turns my boat almost 180 and my wake passes me by. I can get back to the rider fairly quickly, but occasionally I'll go back at higher speed if there's a boat coming towards my rider.

It keeps my boat dry and my passengers comfortable. Even if everyone's in the boat, you'll toss them around pretty badly during a power turn. If someone's not paying attention, they get hurt.

[thehardeys]

Ticket

On our lake, Marine patrol is usually out during the summer. He will give a warning and then a citation if anyone is NOT sitting while the boat is in gear. Just a rule I use on my boat (especially young ones), the other rule is before coming aboard - "Is your feet clean?"

[talltigeguy]

I wouldn't feel bad that you could have prevented that. The passenger not sitting properly caused it,m not the driving habits. It could just as easily happened when hitting a roller or driving a tube. Now her leg is sturgeon food because she did not keep her seat on the seat.

Power turns are something every driver needs to learn to avoid when pulling a skier or boarder. They mess up the whole lake!

[Lucky 275]

Similar incident happened a year ago on Old Hickory, except the girl was killed.


11 or 12 years ago, I was run over by a (former) friend. Apparently he forgot that the boat initiates a turn from the rear. The back end swung around and chopped 3 chunks out of my board. 2 in front of my lead foot, and 1 inbetween my feet.

I learned 2 lessons that day:
1. Always make sure your friend knows how to drive a boat.
2. Never borrow a wakeboard that you're not willing to pay for.