dean51267

I feel so much safer now that the Department of Transportation and FAA have eliminated plane crashes, car wrecks, drunk drivers, speeding, kids doing burnouts, and all that stuff....

I mean golly pete, life is so absent risk now how in the world could anyone live with out big brother governing our lives, expecially us, the more sucessful of society, we have so much to lose we could never be trusted to actually use commonsense and good judgement, if some governing body does not protect us, we might actually face liability, and of course, none of us realize that....

We need to be governed by a heavy hand, it just feels so much safer...

dean51267

wonder how many bass fishermen would agree with that statemetn, as they fish in the middle of the channel and wait for the tow boats to manuver around their favorite honey hole....

LubeJobs42

iTrader: (2)

Several of the major powerboat accidents with deaths that happened over the past few years were not during poker runs. They were during normal, every day boating. Should speed limits be set on power boats all the time?
What I'm saying is the MAJOR poker run organisers do a good job pf promoting saftey. It's been well over a year Stu Jones inplemented the "No passing the pace boat rule". He has the pace boat run under 75 MPH. I will argue the point that his poker runs a Pro saftey.
Before thie incident 2 weeks ago, Poker run saftey never even came up in a thread. Now they are being made out to be the unsafest sport. It sounds like Lake Texoma run was a run that was not organized very well. If people on the lake didn't know there was a poker run, it was on a major holiday weekend, ther was no definete coarse to run, it sounds like it was an accident waiting to happen. That's not ALL poker runs.

rackster

Education will do more, to cut down on accidents, than any other action you can take. That is a positive action, that can help not only poker runs, but every day boating as well. My job is to answer customer questions, about their boats. I am amazed, that a lot of the performance issues are lack of understanding of basic operation. There are a lot of people that don't realize, how much that they don't know (ignorance). You can't legislate ignorance away, however you can educate it away. It has already been said... we can't eliminate all accidents. We can make boaters (all of us), more aware of situations that increase the "possibility" of an accident, and hopefully significantly reduce the frequency and severity.
On another note... are there any thoughts about an organization, to be pro-active in countering "anti-boating" laws? There are a few "local" groups that fight for their own issues, but it may be time for this hobby/sport to become more organized in it's fight for existence. We have all seen that a law passed somewhere else, often ends up being enacted on our waters. Freedoms on the water (whether a right or privilege) are being taken from boaters constantly.

mr_velocity

Maybe not during poker runs but the runs get the most attention and are easiest of people to point out the faults. Right or wrong, runs are an easy target.

Stu is a first class operation, ruin me for all other runs.

I wouldn't say that. When people tried to bring it up others always said it was the wrong time. It happened with this accident.

You can't expect to notify everyone on the lake, it is the RESPONSIBILITY of those in the run to be safe. This is not a closed course and nothing gives you more right to be out there then anyone else. Them, like you (us) must keep proper lookout.

I've been watching this thread, all I can say if you are defensive that this is your god given "right" you can kiss it goodbye. Personally I would like to see an "association" of promotors adopt a "safe Poker Run" that can be used to sell the concept to the public. I never heard of the safe boating.org stuff before. An association would go a long way in the PR battle with the public.

DaveP

I have been on alot of poker runs and the only poker runs that I have seen 100% compliance of NO ALCOHOL is: NJPPC & Poker Runs America. They are plety of poker run organizers that talk the talk but don't walk the walk.

Allowing crews to drink alcohol is a bunch of bull****. So the captain is sober and god forbid something happen the rest of the crew has a buzz on?

I just went on a poker run that was APRA sanctioned and insured and there was alot of booze flowing.

Poker Run organizers need to have the balls to step up and lay down the rules with the participants. If that means that participants will stay home because booze means a good time - OH WELL!

Chris Sunkin

A post in the Trucks and Trailers section of this site made me think of this poker run discussion.

It seems somewhat often that there's a discussion going on over there that goes like... "I know my truck only rated to tow xxx pounds but how much can I REALLY tow- I don't want to have to deal with buying another truck" What surprises me most is how many people line up with the overweight towers.

If you can't even get through to people that they need to be safe ON THE WAY TO THE LAKE, how do we expect them to boat safely.

I won't even get started on the "drinking and boating" thread.

Chris Sunkin

Unfortunately, all that will happen is those runs will go away. Someone else will step in with another "booze run" that satisfies the demand for that kind of event.

20 years ago the local bars and nightclubs were jammed to the gills starting Thursday night. Most of those places are gone. The ones that are still around have thin crowds most nights. Why? Major crackdowns on drunk driving. It sure as Hell wasn't a couple of crash fatalities that shocked people to their senses. It didn't happen on the highways that way and it isn't going to happen in boating either.