I dont believe Unity would have prevented the accidents. strickter safety standards for a canopy maybe but people still pass in other sports with their strict safety standards. As for doing what they love i wouldnt say is an insult, just easier to cope with how a persons goes. I would rather go doing what I truely loved than a damn drunk driver plowing into me....

Unity is unity.
Safety is safety.

There is unity in Europe and they have had recent tragedies.

All the points re investigating better safety features in the boats are very important for sure.

If you hang on to waiting for unity before you take the safety steps that have been mentioned it would be a big mistake.

Great accurate article.

I will miss my friend Joey G. something fierce. I've spent this entire weekend trying to recall every moment i had with him; inside and outside of racing!

Don't forget that hydros are 100% purpose built RACE machines. You are delusional if you think a 4 person cockpit that's larger than a SUV is going to sustain a 200 + MPH crash. Offshore boats are multipurpose built these days.

Hey guys I kept watching the videos of the big thunder wreck and it was awfull to watch that. I kept asking myself one thing WHY did the race still continue making it take forever for rescue to get there trying not to hit boats flying by going 100+ and trying to get to the crash site. It didn't make any sense to me and hopefully you guys can share some light on me and maybe I'll see it from a different perspective. But it brought tears to my eyes watching that wreck and seeing how long it took for rescue to get there meanwhile the other boats just kept hauling tail, that's dangerous in itself. I'm not trying to stir anything up I just believe they would have had a BETTER chance of making it if rescue would have arrived sooner by not having to maneuver through the race still going on. Nobody knows if it was from the injuries from the crash or from drowning but I really hope it wasn't from drowning. If it's innapropriate then delete my response here but I guess I'm just throwing out suggestions so maybe we can learn from this and it doesn't happen again because I have said it was tough watching that video. We love watching the races but please stay safe guys.

I agree w/ 272Baja. How come the boats that followed the accident didn't cirlce back around to try to assist the crashed boat? I thought that was custom in a boat race?

One of the problems has always been ego...isnt that why all the splits in organizations..the alphabet soup as he called it?? Rich makes several great points. I would love to see unity but i wont hold my breath. nhra has rules where a car has to be certified to run certain speeds and times. Faster than eighty mph you need a canopy...over a hundred you need a canopy with strucural steel reinforcing... Just Saying...please dont wait for unity act on more safety asap

Well the other racers would not help. The emergency response people were all over that. What would be needed is a yellow or red flag system to stop the race until the emergency has been resolved.

272 I will take a stab for your answer.. safety boats are placed at a somewhat strategic position on the course inside the race way... it takes a lil time, very little time to respond, If you watch the video and watch the seconds you will see their responce time is pretty fast. they arent weaving in an out of the race boats for they have the inside already an can run in hard, but also being safe of spectator boats. As for the boats racing by still, as the other teams pass they know the safety crews are there responding. all that would happen is a racer getting in the way no scuba gear to go under for a period of time if heaven forbid needed, and possibly putting themselves in danger as well as the accident scene.. Or turning back and now facing boats that didnt see the accident now see a boat heading the opposite direction towards em.. That is the safety crews "job" . Sounds crued using job but all I could come up with...

JPD Motorsports thanks for clearing it up for me. I guess I just figured it would be safer for everyone if the race stopped but I definitely see your point and it makes sense.

Very well stated by Rich. Once again I can only hope that people actually listen to him. We all love this sport, but it is time to acknowlege that things have gotten quite a bit out of hand: the speeds gains have greatly outpaced the safety gains. It is time to make a concentrated effort to get the safety technology on par with the speeds that are now being run, or the speeds need to come down. Look what NASCAR did over twenty years ago when they realized that 220 mph laps at Daytona were simply too fast to be run safely: they slowed the cars down.