Outdated body weight standards cited in water taxi deaths of five

The Washington Times ^ | 3-8-06 | Leslie Miller

[JZelle]

Americans' expanding waistlines were a factor in the capsizing of a Baltimore water taxi that killed five persons in 2004, a trend that has led to other deadly transportation accidents, the National Transportation Safety Board said yesterday. The board said the water taxi tipped over because excessive passenger weight made the boat too unstable to withstand a sudden gust of wind. The NTSB said the Coast Guard underestimated the "tippiness" of the 36-foot Lady D pontoon boat because it used the results of a stability test designed for a different type of vessel.

[lesser_satan]

bump

[msnimje]

Instead of signs saying, "You must be THIS tall to ride" there will soon be signs with "You must be thinner than THIS to ride."

[PreviouslyA-Lurker]

Maybe all docks should have a truck weighing station, and weigh in all passengers before boarding and taking off.

[Kozak]

Exhibit A

[D.P.Roberts]

People at my restaurant prefer booths (sigh) but a large number are too huge to fit into them. Our whole industry is soon going to have to redesign to accommodate our super sized clients.

And on a related note, far and away the biggest reason for using our handicapped parking is (drum roll) too fat to walk very far.

[SunTzuWu]

The NTSB said the Coast Guard underestimated the "tippiness" of the 36-foot Lady D pontoon boat because it used the results of a stability test designed for a different type of vessel.

Misleading headline. The real reason for the accident is highlighted in bold.

[taxesareforever]

Americans' expanding waistlines were a factor

I really expected better from the Washington Times. This sounds like something out of the MSM.

[oldironsides]

Nothing about the weather, wind and waves. I understand the watercraft should have been tied to the dock and not used that day. Common sense seems to have been absent.

[trebb]

What an idiotic finding - fat people cause boat to capsize. Most devices that have limits generally go by actual weight, not numbers of passengers (unless the vessel is big enough that weight will not be anissue no matter how many people can cram on and safe egress is the issue)because numbers can vary by 100% or so when it comes to total weight.