Posted on 05/11/2011 9:36:22 AM PDT by massmike
So what actions did Tony Edwards take himself?
The only answer that i can come up with to avoid a bureaucratic turf war. It's nice to know that paper memos are more important than a child's life.
I read the article, and maybe i’m just not catching it, but how was the kid stuck? Why couldn’t they go in after him? I’m a little lost.
Entirely likely.
There was a tragedy and now everybody is looking for someone to blame/sue. They probably avoided going in for liability reasons.
Doncha know, they are there to write tickets, because tickets save lives. Pulling a stuck boy from under the boat, you ask? Pffft, go ask superman!
"Is he dead yet...OK now we'll go in the water."
I was a diver with Maricopa County Posse in Phoenix for 8 years in the 1970s and we always wished to have an opportunity to save a person. Over a hundred recoveries and not one save!
A second person has died as a result of a Saturday-morning boating accident off Camano Head, the southern tip of Camano Island, officials said.
Austin Anglin, a 13-year-old boy from Camano Island who had been trapped under the overturned boat, died at 8:45 a.m. Sunday at Seattle Children’s hospital, the King County Medical Examiner’s Office said. His death was a result of “near-drowning,” the medical examiner said.
Will Whetham, 68, died Saturday from cardiac arrest. He was pulled from Puget Sound by nearby boaters and taken to Tulalip Marina, where he was declared dead by rescue crews, said Deputy Chief Rob Johnson of the Tulalip Bay Fire Department.
Anglin and Whetham were shrimping in an 18-foot boat Saturday morning with three other adults when two waves swamped the craft around 7:15 a.m. and capsized it, knocking all five into the water, according to the Coast Guard.
Two fishing boats arrived to help. Those aboard pulled Whetham out of the water and saved the three survivors, who all had mild hypothermia, Johnson said.
More...
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2015009904_capsized10m.html
Gotta get that revenue, that's the most important thing of all.
Too often, the emergency response people are not there to respond, they are just there to fill out paperwork after the emergency is over.
Did the other rescue workers know that the boy was already dead? Was it pointless to put these workers at risk without proper equipment?
I would say, that if a boy is fully submerged under water, the window of opportunity is about 4 minutes.
Austin Anglin, 13, was taken off life support Sunday at Seattle’s Children’s Hospital. His 68-year-old great uncle Wil Whetham died Saturday. Three others on board survived.
Authorities were alerted after the boat, with four adults and the teen aboard, overturned off the southern tip of Camano Island at about 7:15 a.m., said First Sgt. Robert Goetz of the Everett police. Officials said the vessel was hit by two or more waves that swamped and overturned it as winds kicked up on the 48-degree water.
“The bow went up and we were all in the water,” said Wil Whetham’s son Brian, one of the survivors.
Nearby boaters pulled Brian, his father, and the two friends out. Once inside the Good Samaritan’s boat, Brian tried to revive his dad with CPR.
“I knew he wasn’t with me no more. I just kept going,” he said.
But they couldn’t find Austin. A Coast Guard rescue swimmer eventually found him pinned under the boat. He’d been in the water for at least 40 minutes.
http://www.komonews.com/news/local/121518604.html
If you try and fail to rescue your kid, there is no-one to sue.
Wait for law-enforcement... now you’re talking lawsuit.
If it was my kid, I would have been under the boat immediately.
Folks, despite the lack a response by the police to save the boy, the bigger issue is that no one was wearing a life-jacket which could have saved their lives.
“He said there were life jackets in the boat and the seat cushions were floatation devices, but no one on board was wearing a life jacket at the time because they felt it was too uncomfortable to shrimp fish in them. “
Agreed.
Guaranteed, if there had been a failed rescue attempt (or better, a successful rescue that left the boy brain-damaged or otherwise permanently disabled) the scumbag lawyers would be knocking each other over for a piece of the action.
Not our job...
“...when the boat capsized after being swamped with water near Camano Island early Saturday morning. Three other people were rescued by Good Samaritans who risked their own lives to save strangers.”
A couple of things not discussed in the article:
“...Rescue crews received word about 7:15 a.m. Saturday that two waves swamped an 18-foot boat, throwing all five people aboard into the water.”
“...According to channel 7 Kiro tv last night the 13 yr old was wearing a floatation type of jacket. .....jacket may have prevented the youth from getting out from under the capsized boat.”
Saturday was the opening of boating season, a special fishery, and if I remember correctly there were small craft warnings out in parts of northern Puget Sound.
The wisdom of taking an 18-foot boat out in such conditions is questionable. Furthermore an 18-foot boat and five people plus gear may have been near its load limit depending on its design.
As tragic as the story is and as horrible as the loss of life is, there are a lot of factors that need to be weighted prior to assigning blame.
As someone who in my youth was a pool lifeguard, I can say that most training is focused on saving people in a way that does not endanger the rescuer. What is also not discussed are the wave/water conditions, whether the boat looked like it may have sunk should someone gotten under it, what kind of gear was dangling from the capsized boat, etc.
There are just too many variable to assign blame in my book. My hat is off to those who rescued the three. My prayers go to the family of those that died.
Same reason Dad couldn't go in after the kid.
The boat had capsized. According to NOAA, the surface water temp. in the Sound this time of year is around 45 degrees. There's no hard and fast rule about how long you'd last in that cold, but the range is from "not very long at all" to "a few minutes". If you don't have your PFD on, all bets are out the window -- cut your survival time in half, then in half again.
I can't tell you that I'd jump in that water, unless it was my own kid. Your chances of becoming the next victim needing rescue are pretty high in that scenario.
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