From all the reports it appears that this was an alcohol related accident. When will people learn? Sorry if it sounds harsh, but this is happening too damn often. Senseless.

With all those people on board, how fast could they have been going to cause 4 deaths? What a shame! They said they "usually" have a designated driver.

The story also indicates that the Tug was tied up to a dock that was being worked on, its also possible that the tug could have been tied up more towards the middle of the ICW than to shore. There have been times that I have seen dock construciton crews leave equipment I.E cranes tied up, and reducing the with of the channel in half, with no reflective signage, just a thought.

From what I have seen the barge and tug were well out of the pathway for boat traffic ....the barge and Tug are parallel with the shore and channel and as stated its pretty much a straight shot there ...... The boat struct the tug amidship ...looks like the boat had to make a 90* turn right into the tug ....this is all speculation .... I'm sure Alcohol, an over loaded boat and even a driver that had little or no experiance created this perfect storm ......m

http://www.jacksonville.com/files/ed...ccident041.jpg

Throttle could have been stuck........

So sad! My thoughts and prayers are with the families.

I was wondering the same thing stuck thottle or maybe a steering failure

We had tragedy on lake st clair this summer. A dredge barge not marked properly was hit at night and people died. If I was a willing hazard to navigation I could be ticketed ,sued and or jailed. Why do I still see these on the public waterways?

I dont think that is the case here ....m

What a sad deal. Hearts goes out to those involved and family of those lost.

To the people who just post "how dumb" they are, it kinda suks how everyone jumps all over the people chucking stones before all facts come out. I fully aware they left conch house (likely alcohol involved ) and eye witness said a woman was driving (not boat owner so less experienced is good guess). But lets not jump all over these guys based on guess of what coulda shoulda happened. Not defending BWI, far from it, but still any loss of human life is a tragic thing that deserves a little bit of compassion IMO. What if she was designated driver because he (owner) had too much to drink and she was perfectly sober and just inexperienced? Is that "OK" and just tragic?

I have been boating for 10 yrs, but none of it in a boat capable of truly high speeds. If I buy a 125 MPH skater and flip it in the bay tomorrow and kill myself and several people on board because I don't have enough experience to drive a boat like that , am I idiot? You bettca.
But at same time should we as boating community feel badly and not just talk about my poor decisions, I would hope so.
These guys didn't corner the market on bad decisions, in my opinion , we all have done them in one form or another and just gotten lucky enough to not get collected and burned. Doesn't make it "excusable”, but still deserves a little bit of compassion.

Sorry for soap box, back to work.

I am wondering, it said it happened about 7:30, I think they are on the same time zone as we are and it is light until at least 8:30 here, does anybody know if it was dark or not?

i would think with 14 people in that size boat, drinking or not it would be hard to see over people stuffed in the front and not handle the best either.

Still sucks no matter who is at fault, I feel for the families.