Kill Switch Saved the Day . . . And Me
May 30, 2008
A couple months ago, I became a statistic. According to the Coast Guard, every year there are hundreds of deaths and thousands of injuries from boating accidents in the U.S. I’ve been driving boats since I was ten years old. I started driving bass boats in 1982 and never had an accident. In fact, I’ve been a designated driver in many events because of my reputation as an experienced and safe boat operator.
So after 30-plus years of handling boats in all kinds of conditions, it just never occurred to me that I could get in trouble behind the console. This attitude made me a little bit too relaxed behind the wheel. I was so relaxed that I didn’t even bother to strap on a life vest during pre-fish on the Delta. I was cruising at about 70 mph in good water when my boat bow-hooked on a boat wake and spun the boat 180 degrees, instantly and with no warning.
There was zero time to react. I was flung into the side of the boat with enough force to break not only my rods and reels, but also my ribs and several vertebrae. I also had serious damage to my knee and arm, but I didn’t know all this until later. I remember being under water and trying to swim to the surface (a difficult task with one useless arm), and, by some miracle, when I got to the surface my boat was right there. All I had to do was reach out and grab it.
Where I was, the river is a half mile wide. With the injuries I had, I wouldn’t have survived an attempt to swim to shore. My kill switch saved my life. Without it, the boat would have kept right on going without me until it rammed into shore or swung back around over the top of me.
Getting into the boat was a chore. I came around and grabbed my Evinrude and climbed in. At that point, I was in so much pain, I couldn’t move. Adrenaline must have played a big part to get me back in the boat. Another angler pre-fishing for the event, Steve Hayashi, came by and saw me wave my arm from the back deck and stopped to help. I sent him around the corner to get my friend Phil Strader. The two of them somehow got me into Phil’s boat and called an ambulance as they took me to the marina.
I spent five days in the hospital and I’ll be laid up for a few months. I can’t fish because I can’t take the pounding of being in a boat. I’ve been lying around for six weeks now and I’ve still got a lot of aches and pains but at least I’m alive to complain. I shudder to think what would have happened if I hadn’t taken the two seconds to snap my kill switch on. You’d be reading my obituary right now instead of the Western Trail.
I honestly had no idea how many people get tossed out of boats every year. Since my accident, I’ve had many anglers tell me their stories. Without naming names, I can tell you of many very experienced drivers that have been ejected from their boats in the last few years. I’ve talked to two veteran test drivers that have been ejected. One is recovering from serious injuries right now. The other has been tossed a total of five times. These guys are experts and are always pushing the limits.
You just never know. A rogue wake can hit you at just the right angle. Something can be floating just under the surface. Even a freak malfunction of the boat itself can turn an ordinary day on the water into a matter of life and death instantly.
If I had been wearing a life jacket, I’d have had a little padding when I slammed against the boat. What if I’d been knocked out before I went over the side? With no life jacket on, my chances would have been slim to none. I want to use my accident as a wake up call to let people know it can happen to anybody. It only takes a couple of seconds to buckle on a vest and hook up the kill switch, but it can save your life.
The Coast Guard says that two hundred to two hundred and fifty non-fatal injuries are reported each year as a result of a person being hit by the prop or propulsion unit of a boat. There are twenty-five to thirty-five deaths a year from the same thing. A kill switch can save your life like it did mine. I was lucky because I had been lax about wearing a life vest. I never thought it could happen to me. That probably sounds familiar because that’s the way we always think. Never think it can’t happen to you because it can. A life jacket and kill switch only take a couple of seconds, but dead lasts forever.