olredalert

iTrader: (1)

----While there may have been some chest thumping in SD that night, its a bit unfair to throw all coasties under the bus. The ones I know here on the St.Clair river area in MI. are good young guys and dont seem to have any ax to grind. I think the majority of these young men are responsible human beings! .......Bill S

huskyrider

iTrader: (1)

I'll second this, our Coasties are young professionals performing their jobs under directive of their officers. Perhaps the fact that they were basically recruits during training or had recently completed basic and were training made it appear this way.
The Captain and his XO should shoulder the blame.
IMO, lights or no lights on the vessel that got hit doesn't really cut the mustard on a tragic accident like this while assigning blame when a boaters speed is exceeding the point of safely navigating due to adverse weather or poor nighttime visibility.
I'd feel certain that if I'd of done the same they'd of held me accountable just as equally. Some people love boating at night. Not that I don't, I just hate carrying any speed above that necessary to stay on plane. We've had way to many of similar accidents in our local lakes, bays, and intercoastal waterways.
I've always contempleted the night vision cameras or binoculars but never made the purchase. I'm kind of shocked that they weren't aboard the cutter, and if they were why wasn't a mate assigned to man the bow or crows nest if the vessel was equipped with them.

See ya,
Kelly