There were three serious incidents involving rented pontoon boats in the bays around Ocean City in the span of about three weeks in August, including a fatal accident involving a 9-year child who fell off a boat while bow-riding, prompting a coalition of professional captains to push for increased safety measures and better training for boat renters before they are simply handed the keys and sent out on the water. The issues have existed for years, and while the timing coincided with the fatal accident involving the child, that incident was alone not the catalyst for the boat captains to seek change.
To be sure, there are plenty of rock solid rental operators who maintain their vessels with the best safety equipment and provide extensive training and guidance to renters, but there are an in-kind number of operators who simply hand over the keys and send weekend warriors out in the crowded bay with little more than a quick briefing. It is the latter that is causing serious, sometimes fatal, incidents on the water. It is not a new problem and incidents have been reported for as long as there have been rented vessels of all shapes and sizes, from small jet skis to large pontoon boats carrying double-digit passengers, intermingling with thousands of other boats out on the water on a typical summer day.
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5 comments:
Pass a law to prevent stupid parents
Stop renting boats to people that are not qualified or smart enough to operate them. No boat rentals = less accidents from weekend warriors on vacation.
I don't care what you do people will die of there own stupidity.
Exactly. Ridiculous.
I work on the water in that bay. The level of stupidity I have seen is mind boggling. No more rentals in town. You want to go on a boat it's a charter with captain at helm. This is a sad statement but given what I have seen we are lucky that this was contained to just a few people in just a few events. When two of these overloaded pontoons run into each other head on it will be a huge, preventable disaster.
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