Girl, 4, Fatally Struck by Houseboat, Father's Legs Severed

[GoVols01]

Tragic accident here, but completely avoidable by all parties involved.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/girl-4-fatally-struck-houseboat-161000893.html

As you can see from my signature, I owned and regularly operated a 69’ long 2-story houseboat with 2 helms: upper deck forward; lower deck forward and inside. Like all large vessels, you can’t see what’s behind the vessel from the helm when backing up, especially from the inside helm. When available, my wife would usually be on the stern as the lookout when I was reversing, but there were several times no one was there to assist me. I’d always check the waters around me and toot the horn 3 times, and then begin backing up.


The boat involved in this accident was a 3 story houseboat that was beached bow-in to the shore - very typical for aluminum hulled houseboats to do. From what the article says, the houseboat captain did his due diligence in checking behind the vessel and yelling “clear” before backing the vessel off the shore. I can’t say where everyone was in relation to the houseboat when the captain yelled “clear”, but I’m sure he started his engines, which should have been another indicator he was about to move. The charges against the houseboat captain states he was “driving recklessly” because he was going full throttle in reverse. Clearly, the DA knows NOTHING about boats! How the hell else do you pull a 100K Lb 3-story vessel off the shore!? It’s VERY typical to have to do that to pull the bow off the beach.


My contention with this whole thing is: how did the 4 year old get behind a giant houseboat unsupervised? Being a 3 story houseboat, I’ll assume it’s at least 70’ long – that’s pretty conservative. The 3 story houseboats I’ve seen are typically in the 100’+ club. Elsewhere in the article, it says the girl and parents were on someone else’s boat for the girl’s 1st time on a boat. That friend’s boat must have been either (1) anchored close behind the houseboat (very unlikely) or it was (2) beached, like the houseboat was. So, again, this 4 year old girl somehow managed to swim out behind this boat, while engines were running and captain yells “clear”….. Things are not adding up here.


I’m pinning more of the blame on the 4 year old’s parents. The charges against the houseboat captain are completely drummed-up and a good lawyer should be able get them reduced. It’s crap like this that scares the crap out of me when boating. Very sad for everyone involved.

 

[jcyamaharider]

Oh wow, very sad. I agree that driving big boats like this the captain can only do so much.

 

[blacksapphirez]

sad but they are just going after the rich guy

 

[Beachbummer]

They did lose a 4 year old, so mourning /vengeance/looking for a way to spread the blame/ likely plays a part.

I extremely happy to say i don't know how the human body responds to such loss, but i expect it makes you do things.

I would not count the decisions made by the parents now to be bound by any sort of rationale. And i cannot be begin to imagine what is going through their mind.

Edit: i realize now the charge is not from the family. I hope this is handled like the horrible accident that it was, and not an excuse to jail the poor guy.

 

[scokill]

I don't know about compensation, lawsuits, and all of that, but at the end of the day the captain of the boat is responsible. Yelling CLEAR and hearing no response is irresponsible. Evidently it is a big 3 story boat so how could everyone possible hear. He should have walked around the boat, informed every single person to get in the boat, move forward, have a lookout, etc. etc. Even then the captain would be at fault, but not negligent and most likely not be criminal. Here is the report in the Dallas paper. Tragic no doubt. The facts don't seem to be disputed especially since there appears to be video and multiple witnesses.

Bernal yelled, "Clear," and threw the boat into reverse after no one responded, according to the affidavit.
Dash-cam footage from an officer's vehicle shows swimmers standing in waist-deep water behind Bernal's boat before he backed it up.
A witness told Temple Police that the "boat was in full throttle while backing up."
According to the jail, Bernal is being charged with criminally negligent homicide, a third-degree felony.

 

[jameskeller76]

I'm not going to exonerate the captain or blame the parents as nobody know 100% of what really happened. According to eyewitness reports people were yelling at him that people we behind the boat.

When you are operating a boat it is your responsibility to make sure that you are not running over anyone.

Having said that this guy has to live with this for the rest of his life. He had family and kids on the boat so this was a very traumatic experience for everyone. Devastating for the parents and a lifelong battle of guilt for the captain.

 

[jdonalds]

I'm sure the skipper didn't start the engine(s) and immediately go to full throttle. You start the engines and they idle for at least a few seconds, then you gradually increase power up to full throttle. I'm not saying that span of time makes much of a difference but it isn't switch on full throttle.

I also agree using full throttle to back a houseboat off the shore almost always involves full throttle in many conditions. Our local lakes lose 1/2 to 1 foot a day so the 1,000 rental houseboats can easily become hard and fast on the shore if the skipper isn't paying attention.

In any case it is a disaster for all involved. Nobody will ever fully recover from this tradegy. I hope the skipper is found not to be at fault. Having him go to prison isn't going to make anything better.