12 year old driving - hits 15 year old on tube.

[Soon2BV]

12 year old driving, 15 year old on tube injured. Happened last week but still no other details.

The legal driving age in Indiana is 15 if you have had a boating course, 16 otherwise.

http://www.wishtv.com/dpp/news/local/west_central/boating-accident-injures-teen

[BoBeLiTe]

Wow... Thats horrible... I don't know why people think that accidents can't happen on the water. Wonder if the parents of the kid will get charged with anything?

[jkendallmsce]

NOt sure if ANY kinda law or regulation could have prevented this one. Unless you simply ban all power boats on the lake.

SAd story and should never have happened.

[BlknYlwT22]

That is crazy. That happened only 20 miles away from where I work. I'm not even sure how a person can pull that off.

[Joeprunc]

I wonder if the parents were on the boat, or on shore watching. I wish some parents were more strict with their kids.

[nyryan2001]

NOt sure if ANY kinda law or regulation could have prevented this one. Unless you simply ban all power boats on the lake.

WHAT? are you kidding me? I havent met a 12yr old yet I would trust to drive a boat, on a busy lake, towing a tube, on 4th of July Weekend, lake packed with other boats, 25% drunk.

Just too much going on, inside the boat, behind you, other boaters, debris, shore.rocks.

[Michigan boarder]

My 12 and 13 year old boys just got the boating safety certificates last weekend. Their formal training (by me) started on Sunday. I am going to use this as an example. Stuff happens so fast.

Also, I'm guessing the driver saw the tubers before he hit them, and panicked. Part of my training is going to include some instances of panic where all he needs to do is kill the ignition...not hard reverse, not steer, just stop the prop.

[jkendallmsce]

WHAT? are you kidding me? I havent met a 12yr old yet I would trust to drive a boat, on a busy lake, towing a tube, on 4th of July Weekend, lake packed with other boats, 25% drunk.

Just too much going on, inside the boat, behind you, other boaters, debris, shore.rocks.

Just foolin ya. WHo in their right mind would let a 12 year drive a boat?? I would not even let a 16 year drive a boat w/o LOTS of time with an adult along side them. Parents are either morons for not doing their job, or the kid(s) snuck out w/o ma and pa knowing!! Either way, it ended up being a mess and something the kids will never forget.

MB is right and takes his parenting seriously, as he know ya gotta be on guard ALL the time. I have seen tooo many folks out on the water that should not be drivin a boat let alon pushing a a shopping cart.

[Sliderfiii]

in Ontario you have to have an operators permit and nobody under 16 can drive anything over 40hp ( or PWC)

[jetskipro550]

When I read the title, I thought Michigan Boarder handed over the keys to his sons too soon

Unless the kids stole the boat, I blame the parents. Regardless of age, if you don't know how to drive a boat, you shouldn't be behind the wheel. Around here a 12 year old can't even ride in a boat without a life jacket on.

I'm only 27, but things hav a changed a lot since I was 12! My friends and I grew up on/around the water and when we 12 we were out driving jet skis & boats and towing people with (with parents on the shore). Once we were 16 and had our licenses, were able to go to lakes by ourselves or even go away for weekend camping trips.

[jetskipro550]

My 12 and 13 year old boys just got the boating safety certificates last weekend. Their formal training (by me) started on Sunday. I am going to use this as an example. Stuff happens so fast.

Also, I'm guessing the driver saw the tubers before he hit them, and panicked. Part of my training is going to include some instances of panic where all he needs to do is kill the ignition...not hard reverse, not steer, just stop the prop.

When in doubt, put the throttle down and crank the wheel

[99response]

When in doubt, put the throttle down and crank the wheel

Putting the boat between your skier and an oncoming boat in a hurry should be part of the training, and it requires some serious throttle and wheel cranking to do that.

[SunriseH2OSkier]

Putting the boat between your skier and an oncoming boat in a hurry should be part of the training, and it requires some serious throttle and wheel cranking to do that.

x 1,000,000

Had to use this move a couple weekends ago. Was pulling my 10 year old daughter skiing. First time skiing for real, on trainer combos. She's a tiny thing - weighs 50 lbs soaking wet, so we were only going maybe 16-17mph. Some clown is following us pulling a wakeboarder, doing low 20's. For the most part, he was riding outside our wake, sort of parallel to our path. In theory, he could have been ok (though I never would have put someone else in that position). However we were entering a narrow area of the lake, and there happened to be pontoon or something else that was stopped that narrowed the lake even further. The guy had two choices - follow my path directly, or peel off and go back from where he came. The rest of the lake was open, no reason he couldn't have just peeled off. But no, he decides to follow me. Apparently clueless to the fact that he was quickly catching up to us.

Sure enough, my daughter catches someone's wake and goes down, right in the narrowest part of the pass. I look back and the other guy is not pulling out of the throttle at all. Apparently didn't want to mess up his rider's pull... I had to flip the boat around quickly - drove right at him to make sure I had his attention, watching his eyes the whole time, then turned to make sure I was between my daughter and him. Fortunately, he could see her - and me. But rather than pull out of the throttle, he just steered around us and kept going. I glared at him as he went by, he seemed completely clueless to how dangerous the situation was that he created.

It's days like that that make me wish we had more regular marine sheriff patrol. Unfortunately they weren't out there yet that day. I would have reported him right away for sure.

[Michigan boarder]

Putting the boat between your skier and an oncoming boat in a hurry should be part of the training, and it requires some serious throttle and wheel cranking to do that.

Very true. I need to start writing this stuff down. It's all second nature to me, but that took years to learn and will take years to teach.

[jkendallmsce]

x 1,000,000

Had to use this move a couple weekends ago. Was pulling my 10 year old daughter skiing. First time skiing for real, on trainer combos. She's a tiny thing - weighs 50 lbs soaking wet, so we were only going maybe 16-17mph. Some clown is following us pulling a wakeboarder, doing low 20's. For the most part, he was riding outside our wake, sort of parallel to our path. In theory, he could have been ok (though I never would have put someone else in that position). However we were entering a narrow area of the lake, and there happened to be pontoon or something else that was stopped that narrowed the lake even further. The guy had two choices - follow my path directly, or peel off and go back from where he came. The rest of the lake was open, no reason he couldn't have just peeled off. But no, he decides to follow me. Apparently clueless to the fact that he was quickly catching up to us.

Sure enough, my daughter catches someone's wake and goes down, right in the narrowest part of the pass. I look back and the other guy is not pulling out of the throttle at all. Apparently didn't want to mess up his rider's pull... I had to flip the boat around quickly - drove right at him to make sure I had his attention, watching his eyes the whole time, then turned to make sure I was between my daughter and him. Fortunately, he could see her - and me. But rather than pull out of the throttle, he just steered around us and kept going. I glared at him as he went by, he seemed completely clueless to how dangerous the situation was that he created.

It's days like that that make me wish we had more regular marine sheriff patrol. Unfortunately they weren't out there yet that day. I would have reported him right away for sure.

Yep, I have seen drivers keep going in situations just like what you described....like it is their life's mission to get that skier his best pull EVER...have seen them out on the delta, pulling a skier zipping well within 200 ft of the sheriff;s boat with lights flashing as the sheriff is writing a ticket??? Sheriff didn't even have to chase him down, just yelled HEY AHOLE over his PA system.....course when the driver of the boat heard AHOLE, he immediatley knew someone was yelling at him!!! ha ha

[wakeboarder3780]

I agree with what was said above, if the kid didn't steal the boat, the parents are seriously negligent. The only way I could see letting a child that young drive the boat was if they were on your lap and you had the ability to take control at any moment of the situation. Personally I think our next upgrade on our malibu boats needs to be a gunner chair so the spotter can fire shots off the offending boats bow for warning shots and if they don't resolve the situation you just rip the boat in half :D

[Soon2BV]

one of the news stories said the boys had been at a camp for disadvantaged kids prior to boating. The story just says there was an adult in the boat, not sure if a parent, counselor, friend, ??? And not sure how they ended up in a boat.

[BSUBU_Kris]

x 1,000,000

Had to use this move a couple weekends ago. Was pulling my 10 year old daughter skiing. First time skiing for real, on trainer combos. She's a tiny thing - weighs 50 lbs soaking wet, so we were only going maybe 16-17mph. Some clown is following us pulling a wakeboarder, doing low 20's. For the most part, he was riding outside our wake, sort of parallel to our path. In theory, he could have been ok (though I never would have put someone else in that position). However we were entering a narrow area of the lake, and there happened to be pontoon or something else that was stopped that narrowed the lake even further. The guy had two choices - follow my path directly, or peel off and go back from where he came. The rest of the lake was open, no reason he couldn't have just peeled off. But no, he decides to follow me. Apparently clueless to the fact that he was quickly catching up to us.

Sure enough, my daughter catches someone's wake and goes down, right in the narrowest part of the pass. I look back and the other guy is not pulling out of the throttle at all. Apparently didn't want to mess up his rider's pull... I had to flip the boat around quickly - drove right at him to make sure I had his attention, watching his eyes the whole time, then turned to make sure I was between my daughter and him. Fortunately, he could see her - and me. But rather than pull out of the throttle, he just steered around us and kept going. I glared at him as he went by, he seemed completely clueless to how dangerous the situation was that he created.

It's days like that that make me wish we had more regular marine sheriff patrol. Unfortunately they weren't out there yet that day. I would have reported him right away for sure.

You can provide the Sheriff the hull numbers and they can have a conversation with them. Would probably be good for the driver of the other boat to get some input on proper driving.