We owe it to these boys

[Sigarms]

to ensure that this never happens again...

3rd Boy Scout dies after sailboat strikes power lines in East Texas | Accidental Death | Dallas News

Can't imagine the hurt the parents are going through.

Kind of gets me mad that these boys were wearing floatation devices (good safety) and yet adults, for whatever reason, allowed this tragedy to happen. Scratching my head over a live line so close to water that a boat could hit it?

Prayers to those involved.

 

[oldnslo]

I was a Boy Scout Leader for 12 years and things happen fast when you have a few dozen kids and 3 or 4 adults. Would you be looking for power lines over a lake while in a catamaran or be concentrating on steering and keeping it upright.

We took 74 scouts with 20 adults canoeing for a week in the Michigan UP. Had one kid get lost going to the bathroom. Found him two hours later. Two swamped a canoe and required rescuing. No body was looking to blame anyone, we all just worked together to fix the problem.

Agree on prayers to those involved.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

Spent many yrs with scouts on outings. BSA is already very risk adverse, tons of paperwork, training, etc required for an outing like this.
Very sad that it happened, my heart goes out to the families.

 

[Sigarms]

I was a Boy Scout Leader for 12 years and things happen fast when you have a few dozen kids and 3 or 4 adults. Would you be looking for power lines over a lake while in a catamaran or be concentrating on steering and keeping it upright.

I agree.

However the question would be why would you have a live power line over a lake that a sailboat would be on that could come in contact with that live wire?

I'm not blaming the the kids or the parents there, I'm blaming the situation where the wire was allowed to kill. It's one thing to die of stupidity or of nature itself (which can happen), but this was a man catastrophy.

buckeye farmer, I'm still participate in BSA, and I agree, tons of paperwork LOL

 

[buckeyefarmer]

I understood it was a troop Outing and not a normal scout camp?

 

[Sigarms]

I understood it was a troop Outing and not a normal scout camp?

Correct.

Could you ever imagine a scout camp having a hot wire going across a lake the boys would use? At worst, if you have a hot wire going across water that people could be boating on, you warn them about the possible dangers of the wire.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

That looks like a large public lake also.

 

[Sigarms]

That looks like a large public lake also.

Which common sense tells you (yes, that dreaded word) that you only increase the odds of something bad happening with a live hot wire over water, particularly if it's low enough that a sail boat can hit it.

That said, perhaps something happened to the wire to lower it. Why I'm curious as to what they find out.

 

[dmccarty]

...
That said, perhaps something happened to the wire to lower it. Why I'm curious as to what they find out.

My thought when I read the story was that the line must have been pulled down for some reason. Tree fall perhaps? Having said that, of the three large public lakes I am familiar I can't think of any power lines across the water that would be hit by a sail boat. The only one I can remember that does have power lines, they happen to be transmission lines on large towers that seem to be high enough that an ocean going sailboat could safely cross under.

Horrible tragedy.

We have had too many drownings on our local lakes this year. It has been a bad year.

Later,
Dan

 

[buckeyefarmer]

Im wondering if the line crossed up in a cove, and something fell that caused it to hang low.