Indiana Department of Natural Resource officers examine one of the boats involved in the weekend double-fatality crash.

There is a story in yesterday’s Indianapolis Star that examines the tragic deaths of two people on Lake Monroe over the weekend.  In case you missed the news coverage, a 19-foot ski boat driven by a 19-year-old man hit a fishing boat containing well-known local guide Rusty Collier, his wife Susan and their three 8-year-old grandsons.

Susan Collier and grandson Gage Pruett were killed in the collision.

Indystar.com has an interesting story by John Tuohy.   He spoke with several local fisherman and all agree that Lake Monroe is extremely dangerous on weekends when everything from 30-foot cigar boats to car-topper fishing boats fly around the lake.  We have experienced this same watery racetrack and made the same vows to never fish the lake on the weekend if possible.

In the fatal crash, it appears that alcohol was not involved nor were there any environmental conditions that contributed to the collision.  According to media reports, it appears that the boat driver and his spotter were just busy watching their buddy wakeboard and ran over the top of Collier’s fishing boat.

How preventable is that?

I’ve had so many close calls on the water and the vast majority have involved idiots driving ski boats or other “go fast” craft.

I would like to remind those boat drivers  zipping blithely around the lake:  just because you’ve got a cool looking boat and a few bikini-clad crew members, it doesn’t make you particularly competent, stunningly virile or especially bright.  It’s just a watercraft and in the wrong hands, it a bozo-boat.

How about you turn down the stereo, set the cocktail aside and just pay attention?

Too much, I suppose.

Story Link:

Indystar.com article

Photo: Jennifer Cecil / The Indianapolis  Star

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