Witnessed what could have been a very tragic accident yesterday at the lake. This is long.

I usually don’t go out on the big weekends for all the usual reasons. But this time, a business acquaintance had won a drawing for a houseboat weekend over Labor Day and decided to treat all their employees to a trip to the lake. They didn’t have much access to a ski type boat and I offered to hang out for a couple of days and play with the crew.

We had done some tubing in the morning and came back to the houseboat to exchange passengers and one of the ladies wanted to water ski. The houseboat was set up far back in a cove with about 75 yards across to the other side. We were to only ones in the cove.

As I drifted away from the houseboat in about the center of the cove, a Centurion with a couple of kids on a tube came into the cove at planning speed about 20’ off the far bank and roared right past us. I was facing out of the cove and getting out the ski rope when the crew on my boat exclaimed “Oh my God they just crashed into the bank!” Seems the driver of the Centurion tried to turn around in the narrow part of the cove and the tube smacked the bank sending the kids flying up the steep and rocky embankment.

By the time I turned around, the driver had bailed off his boat and swam to shore and was holding one of the kids in his arms at the waters edge. Blood was all over the kids face and down the front of his chest. I hollered to them if the kid was alright and got an answer of he “didn’t know”. I offered to help.

I idled in closer and it was apparent that the kid was conscious and breathing alright. No numbness or tingling anywhere. His right arm was bleeding and his face was pretty cut up.

Since there was just a slight breeze at our back, I dropped an anchor and let the wind turn our boat so that the stern was at the bank. We loaded the kid onto the stern of my boat so that I could better check him out. I then had the guy holding the anchor line pay out some rope and let my boat settle in parallel to the steep bank. I already had someone dig out my first aid kit. The Centurion had drifted off further into the cove with a young lady on board that had no idea how to drive a boat. One of our crew retrieved their boat and brought it along side mine as it had settled in parallel to the bank while I was busy cleaning and bandaging up the kid. He had a bad cut lip and a pretty substantial cut to the back of his hand. No bones broken that I could find and all the parts and pieces seemed to work just fine. No loss of consciousness, pupils equal and reactive, no breathing issues, nor any other major damage or tenderness. One thing that probably made a big difference for the kids injuries was that he was wearing a full body suit for the cold water and most of his body was very well covered.

Witnesses who saw the kids hit the bank said that he flew about 10’ up the bank and rolled back to the waters edge. The banks here are very steep and rocky. He is one lucky kid! The other kid in the tube managed somehow to stay with the tube and was unhurt. Turned out that the kid was a family friend and his parents weren’t with them for the trip to the lake. The driver of the Centurion had just bought the boat and this was their first trip out. Which explains a lot! And no, I didn’t belittle or lecture the driver. The look on his face said it all. He was horrified at what had happened.

I suggested that he take the kid directly to the hospital which is about a half hour drive from the lake. The kid was going to need stitches for sure and given the nature of the accident, a doctor really needed to check the kid out more closely. I told him that he may not be hurting much at the moment, but in just a short while that could change, it could get a lot worse. Especially if the there were any internal injuries. Since the kid never lost consciousness, was able to stand and walk, and had no other obvious injuries, he probably didn’t need an ambulance. But, if anything changed on their way back to the marina, he needed to think about calling for help. I suggested that he not take the time to load up his boat or anything like packing up for the day, he could come back for that stuff later. We offered to take the kid to the marina and meet them there, but he declined.

So the moral of the story…all of us were new at boating at some point...but a little preparation for emergencies goes a long way. Especially if you are new at this. A first aid course and some supplies on board go a long way in this type of incident. Stop and think before you react. I understand the urge to get to the injured kid and jumping off the boat and swimming to shore seems like the right reaction to the situation, but if we weren’t there, he would have had to swim back to the boat and get it to be able to transport the injured kid since the young lady left on the boat had no idea how to start it let alone drive it up to the shore line.

This accident was all about inexperience. The driver discovered too late that he was in a tight spot, he was going too fast, and must have not thought about the swing of the tube in the tight space he was in when he made the turn. I suspect the driver was not looking ahead and when he did, he reacted to a space problem he was faced with and simply did not think about the tube at the end of the rope. He wasn’t in a position of running aground and had he cut the throttle, there was plenty of room to just stop, turn around at idle speed and head back in the opposite direction. One lesson learned the very hard way.

Oh yea, the lady that wanted to go skiing on my boat hadn’t been on a ski in a few years, but got up first try and stayed up all the way to a classic textbook finish when she wanted to instead of they way it usually turns out for me (a rather abrupt and usually kinda ungraceful splash is involved in my attempts at skiing).

No Agenda - Well done on your part!

Nice job and hope the child had no more serious injuries than y'all saw.

Yea, I think he'll be okay. Tough little 14 yo kid whose dad shoes horses. He didn't shed a tear. I said to him that the kids from Hayfork sure are tougher than kids from the coast. Watched their HS football team kick butt last year (I was making it up on the fly but had him thinking of something other than pain).

The kid from Hayfork who's dad shoes horses? You can't make this $#!+ up.

Glad that he's apparently okay. This is something that can most likely be attributed to operartor inexperience.

As it turns out. The kid wasn't the drivers kid but a family friend. The driver said to someone in our party that he had just bought the boat and this was their first trip.

NA,

Nice work. A common sense approach.

I see a shortage of that on the water sometimes.

good thing for that kid you were there. well done.