Thoughts on this article?

[natebroll]

Headline: Former Kerrville resident shares story of 9-year-old son’s death as warning 

Partial text: 

“His COHb was 72 percent. His so-called ‘drowning’ was secondary to the fact that he never would have lived at that level. What does that mean? It means Andrew was not going to live regardless of what happened next. He was at the back of our Malibu Skier most of the day. Boats, even moving, create a backdraft of exhaust. That’s right. Exactly what I’ve typed: carbon monoxide exits the rear of the boat and drafts right back into the back of the boat.

“Backseat riders are especially vulnerable at low speeds and in long no-wake zones like the one we had to cross to return to the docks.”

https://www.hccommunityjournal.com/article_2c3903cc-f1fb-11ea-9314-0f8c02b6e971.html

[TallRedRider]

I cannot imagine her grief.  

He may have died no matter what as she says, but 30 minutes on the bottom of the lake seals the deal pretty much every time.  He should have been in a life vest until on the shore.  The carbon monoxide made him faint, the time underwater is still the cause of death.  It is interesting to me that this is the same story for carbon monoxide deaths almost every time.  I have not heard of someone dying from carbon monoxide in a boat who did not spend an extended amount of time under the surface.    

 

Edited September 16, 2020 by TallRedRider

[Bradley Thornton]

Safety First

All new boats should require some type of system not an option. 

People with old boats should add it and if you have kids it should be pushed by friends for you too. 

Fresh Air Exhaust has done many test on this.  This is an easy one to see.

[rakr]

It seems like I’ve seen this on a few older inboards. 
 

It seems like even the turn down tips help a bit, but also I’m assuming the cats in the newer boats help as well.

do the older boats not have cats, or are they less effective at removing CO? It looks like the Indmar ExCats came out in 2007, and an article said they were much better at removing CO. 

[oldjeep]

Sorry, but the article reads like someone preparing to sue someone or pass blame over their child who drowned while they were not paying attention.

Harsh, maybe.

[Nitrousbird]

21 hours ago, rakr said:

do the older boats not have cats, or are they less effective at removing CO? It looks like the Indmar ExCats came out in 2007, and an article said they were much better at removing CO. 

No cats; not a thing until somewhere in the mid-late '00's.  My '01 doesn't have them.

I am betting this was a carbed boat.  Probably running rich as hell at idle and spewing fumes worse than any normal running EFI  boat.  This being a direct drive, the hit was sitting much closer to the back than he would have in a Vdrive as well.  All contributing factors.  

Facts:
- Life jacket would have saved the kid from drowning, regardless of whether he would have later died anyway
- Kid would have likely been fine doing the same thing sitting at the back of a Vdrive, regardless of how the boat was tuned/running
- Kid would have had a better chance in an EFI boat and a better chance in a newer cat-equipped boat
- Kid would have been fine in any combo above if the boat had a FAE installed.  

End result is this was a preventable accident.

[Steve B.]

22 hours ago, TallRedRider said:

I cannot imagine her grief.  

He may have died no matter what as she says, but 30 minutes on the bottom of the lake seals the deal pretty much every time.  He should have been in a life vest until on the shore.  The carbon monoxide made him faint, the time underwater is still the cause of death.  It is interesting to me that this is the same story for carbon monoxide deaths almost every time.  I have not heard of someone dying from carbon monoxide in a boat who did not spend an extended amount of time under the surface.    

 

He was under the water for 30 minutes ?  I didn't want to post anything remotely negative about this tragic story, but some of the wording just seems kinda off. Again, my heartfelt sympathy goes out to the young man, his family and friends.

Steve B.

[TallRedRider]

3 hours ago, Steve B. said:

He was under the water for 30 minutes ?  I didn't want to post anything remotely negative about this tragic story, but some of the wording just seems kinda off. Again, my heartfelt sympathy goes out to the young man, his family and friends.

Steve B.

The article says he was a strong swimmer and that he went into the water 'without even trying to swim' or something to that effect.  Also the media (and they always do their homework, I know) said that he drowned.  Mother said she did not want to dispute the drowning narrative until she had the autopsy results, so I think we can safely conclude he was found dead in the water.  My 30 minutes was definitely an assumption, but even 5 minutes underwater starts to kill brain cells.  

[67King]

Guess buying that surf pipe was a pretty dang good investment.  Probably not an issue for those f us with new boats with cats, etc.  Need to get my blower fixed, though.  Can't imagine this.  https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/mother-issues-warning-carbon-monoxide-boating-152537276.html

[Woodski]

Very sad, and certainly difficult times for the parents, sympathy out to them. 

My experience around older boats, particularly carb'ed ones is a tendency to be running rich to very rich from a fuel mixture.  Owners of older boats need to be vigilant on maintaining proper tune to keep emissions at their minimum.  Older boats are built using the technology of the time which does not include emission controls.  Retrofitting will mostly not be possible (eg: Ford 351 carb'ed engine won't have a Cat exhaust system available, old boats won't have provisions to use O2 sensors, etc..) or prohibitively expense for the owners (hence why they are enjoying themselves in an older boat).   When ownership is limited to older equipment and financial resources are not available then one must turn to sweat / intellectual equity to ensure the boat is in proper operating condition.  A current era mindset simply does not work well with older equipment given levels of built in protections integrated to modern vehicles and equipment.  Recent trends in behind the boat activities were also never considered in the era of those builds thus many unintended consequences can occur.

Besides being a very tragic story, hopefully some positive outcome for older boat owners to make sure their boats minimize the conditions present in this particular case.

[oldjeep]

And this isn't exactly a new thought

This is from the CDC in 2006

https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/topics/coboating/pdfs/ntlcaselisting.pdf

The Platform that I built my wifes wine bar out of was a set of platforms that a lawyer had modified to show various ways of making them safer in a lawsuit against one of the big mfg, where a younger person had died from inhaling C0.  They had installed a bunch of plexi to cover up the through holes.

Now, I'd say that their mod wouldn't have really fixed any problems since you can gas yourself on a fiberglass platform, but I guess it would make it a little better for people standing on the platform.