San Diego CG vessel collides with Sea Ray, killing 1

Very very sad accident! It will be very interesting to see what the inquiry finds. I have been witness to high speed "response to distress" calls by several different agencies, where the "distress" was not a true mayday. The report is that the nature of the distress was a grounding.

These parades are very difficult to see boat's navigational lights and predict courses.
 
Sad no doubt. And maybe not the best judgement of the CG given the results of their decisions on that night. But I will stop from saying anything more as the details of the incident have yet to come to light. My heart goes out to the family of the boat that was hit.
 
Definitely a tragic and unnecessary accident. The child's grandfather Roger DeWeese and his father Alan were boating friends that we met in the Broughton's in 2006. Really nice people. As parents and grandparents it's heartbreaking to hear of such a senseless loss.

Brent and Dixie
 
I'm so glad VHF channel 22 is there in case I get in trouble, so please don't consider this post as a flame of the Coast Guard, but there've been numerous times in a relatively quiet harbor where the boat creating the largest wake was the CG chasing someone doing 7 knots in a 5-knot speed zone.
 
By pointing this out I am not "sticking up" for the coasties on this, but these same kinds of tragic accidents happen on land with police chases also. Next to the family of the boy that was killed I am sure no one feels worse than the coxswain and crew on the CG boat.
 
One thing for certain is I run slower at night than during the day.

Lights are very confusing at night when everywhere you look there are lights.
Foreground lights get confused with background lights. Sounds like the CG vessel had 6 watches.

I can't relate this incident to a chase on land. No bad guys, no one in the water and how much danger were the occupants of a beached boat in?

So sad to all involved, especially for the now forever child.
 
One also has to look at what other distractions were going on. What wasn't mentioned in the article was the fact that the accident occurred during the annual San Diego "Parade of Lights". Literally dozens of boats brightly lit with Christmas lights and decorations in the parade itself and many many more spectator boats in the bay.

There are at least three separate investigations going on. NTSB, Harbor Police, and the Coast Guard. The actual accident occurred almost directly across from the Harbor Drive bridge that crosses the inlet between the Marine base and the old Naval Training Center, now called "Liberty Station." Probably the narrowest area of the bay between the Coronado bridge and the bay entrance.

The investigation is focusing on just how fast the Coasties were going at the time of the accident and they are asking for any home videos that might include the CG boat. Lots of home videos going because of the parade.

The entire crew has been pulled from rescue duty until the dust settles and the root cause is determined. Frankly, it doesn't look good for the Coasties at this point.

Don
 
The 33 is not just used for drug intervention. In USCG District 13 and most others it is the primary vessel for overall patrol. We see them all the time in the San Juans.
 
Vessel looks like a modified safe boat with one more engine. The 25' safe boat is overall 33 feet and with typical power is capable of 50 mph.

A very capable boat and it handles well at slow speeds also.
 
Sneaks":3w2nu182 said:
One also has to look at what other distractions were going on. What wasn't mentioned in the article was the fact that the accident occurred during the annual San Diego "Parade of Lights". Literally dozens of boats brightly lit with Christmas lights and decorations in the parade itself and many many more spectator boats in the bay.

There are at least three separate investigations going on. NTSB, Harbor Police, and the Coast Guard. The actual accident occurred almost directly across from the Harbor Drive bridge that crosses the inlet between the Marine base and the old Naval Training Center, now called "Liberty Station." Probably the narrowest area of the bay between the Coronado bridge and the bay entrance.

The investigation is focusing on just how fast the Coasties were going at the time of the accident and they are asking for any home videos that might include the CG boat. Lots of home videos going because of the parade.

The entire crew has been pulled from rescue duty until the dust settles and the root cause is determined. Frankly, it doesn't look good for the Coasties at this point.

Don
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Good analysis. Our Auxiliary facility patrols about 4 fireworks displays each summer. One of them is in a similar setting to the San Diego bay, where the nav and anchor lights blend in easily to the street lights. It's very difficult to see boats, even in the best evening conditions. I cannot picture any scenario where I would gun my facility up to 30 knots in conditions, especially at night. I wonder if the coxswain became too excited about a grounding call and got ahead of sound judgment and training.

I'm relieved in one sense. It wasn't an Auxiliary boat. There were a number of us who feared it was.

-Greg
 
I avoided our lighted boat show this year because mainly of the reckless operation following the show last year. I waited about and hour for boats to disperse somewhat last year and I slowly cruised along at hull speed to try and get out of the congestion. My night vision isn't good so I was taking particular care when a CG boat came up beside me and radioed me to stay back as they were moving the fireworks barge. This thing didn't have light one on it and even proceeding as slowly as I was I may have hit it without the warning from the CG. If I go next year or this fourth of July I'll be spending tied up at the city dock for the night to avoid the mess. My thoughts and prayers go out to the family anytime is a bad time but Christmas's from this point on will be terrible for the family of the young boy plus the Coast Guard guys envolved. I wish there was some way we could collectively offer our condolences to the family from the C-Brat Group.
 
Update today:

Four Coast Guard petty officers were given charges that ranged from involuntary manslaughter to negligent homicide and dereliction of duty today from that accident way back in December 2009.

The full story is here.

Obviously the Coxwain, Paul Ramos will get the worse of the charges but it was so apparent that the CG vessel was speeding even the Coast Guard admitted that the day after the accident.
 
This is very sad all around. The young Boatswains Mates on the boat were careless, caused a death, wrecked the family that lost the child, and they wrecked their lives and their families lives. I am sure that adrenaline, over confidence, and bravado had as much to with it as simple youthful inexperience in applying their training. But they did have good training.

I would love to blame some nameless, faceless organization for it, but having been at Yorktown where they train these guys, and knowing the caliber of the instructors and the training, the fault lies squarely on the crew. They lost their situational awareness. No amount of punishment will bring back the life lost, and knowing Coasties, I suspect these guys will beat themselves up til the day they die. I hope the judge truly administers justice and not vengence.
 
In the recent marine training that I conducted with our crews I shared two tragic incidents involving individuals that represent marine enforcement/safety entities. This was one of them and the other was the tragic collision that occured in 2006 on California's Clear Lake.
Whether these incidents occur while on or off duty it pains me to read these stories and we strive to keep our personnel mindful of these tragedys so that we learn from and are not involved in similar situations.
Thank you Don, for sharing the update on this tragedy, I've already copied it for inclusion in future classes.
On Sat. evening July 24 we'll be out on Lake Stevens again for the annual Aqua Fest Fireworks Show hoping to keep all the vessels out of harms way and the San Diego incident will be keenly on my mind. Although this event is a much smaller scale that San Diego it is certainly activity that requires constant vigilance. Bobbing around on the water in the dark with all the other boats is certainly a challenge.
 
A double tragedy - for the the family of that child, and for the young men on the CG boat who intended no harm...

I have spent years around law enforcement and the hardest thing to teach these young officers is that they are absolutely required to intervene when another officer is making a mistake... I understand it is a thin blue line and that you have to depend on that guy (gal) to cover your back, but when they are wrong they are wrong and being a professional requires you to speak up and say "stop NOW"...

It is clear the CG command structure is intent on teaching this because they are holding the entire crew responsible, not just the hand on the throttles... Part of the problem with this crew is that they are all young and full of vinegar... There was no grizzled old hand aboard who would instinctively know it was too dangerous to go fast, and to reach out and jerk the throttles back and growl at the coxswain, "What the &*^$%#@ do you think you are doing?"

dr. o
 
It is good to see the Coast Guard authorities recognize the criminally reckless behavior of these perpetrators. Their abuse of their authority resulted in the death of an innocent child due to their flagrant disregard for the safety and well being of citizens. In my eyes this was a near murder, as no adult could be under ANY illusions of the consequences of a collision at those speeds as well as the likelihood of a collision in such a crowded harbor in the darkness.

I hope they give the driver and the boat commander stiff prison terms without parole as a message to any other potential killers operating under cloak of authority. It is even worse that this killing was performed by the Coast Guard, an organization once established to save life, not take it. Would I be overreaching if I ascribed some of the blame for this incident to the shift in the Coast Guards mission from rescue to border patrol? They once looked upon us citizens as victims to be helped and given succor, now we are all just suspects and possible terrorists and smugglers.
 
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