? Jet ski accident strawberry lake ?

[Retired Educator]

My jet-ski has a throttle like a snowmobile. Release the thumb and the machine idles down. It also has a kill switch which is designed to be hooked to the driver and shuts the motor off completely when the driver falls off.

This is a tragedy and all the blame can be placed by someone and I'd be surprised if the driver of the jet-ski doesn't feel just awful and would do just about anything to have never had this happen. If it were me driving I can't imagine living with that guilt.

 

[dean nelson]

As I understand, the incident occurred in or near small bay. Plus the jet ski that was refurbish with bypass on kill switch, or the bypass was not attached. But whatever....me personally would like to advocate to those who use jet skis to use them outside of bays where boats idle in and out for safety reasons. Out there you can do your playing quick turns, wake jumps, spins, etc where people can see and avoid you and you can see and avoid boats. I have seen over the years too much farten around at high speeds in close quarters because "Billy-Bob" is trying to impress the ladies.

Have you ever seen that lake? Small bay that lake is a small bay! Hell it's widest spot is only like 400 yards so not exactly any room to spare in that tiny little lake.

 

[Fishmission]

A jet ski can cover the whole shoreline in a few minutes

 

[Nean Delson]

Have you ever seen that lake? Small bay that lake is a small bay! Hell it's widest spot is only like 400 yards so not exactly any room to spare in that tiny little lake.

Yes of course. My brother knows every lake in ND like the back of his hand. Sad deal.

 

[ktm450]

I have never been on a jet-ski. But wouldn't the throttle be set up like a snowmobile so that if you take your hand off it the machine would go to idle? Did he have some kind of "cruise control" on it?

Such a tragedy and my thoughts are with the families in this difficult time.

Yes, you are correct. Let off the gas and it idles down, but the main difference is that a jet ski even while at idle will still move, and also the only way a jet ski can turn is by having the engine running. also jet skis don't really stop on a dime, and there is no kill switch either.

There are so many variables that can play in this scenario:
1. did the throttle stick?
2. was he wearing the tether
3. did the tether fail- ( have had this happen to my jet ski once)


definitely a terrible accident, thoughts and prayers go out to all involved

 

[Paddledogger]

Have you ever seen that lake? Small bay that lake is a small bay! Hell it's widest spot is only like 400 yards so not exactly any room to spare in that tiny little lake.

No, I have never actually been to that lake. All I have heard from people who have a place there say that it is a smaller lake. I would like to respond to Obi on his reply to my last post. I wasn't say ban them, but some of these jet skis do 60+ mph and the operators seem are young kids, who I believe are to go through a class if under a certain age. I don't know what the answer is to make some of these lakes safer....maybe further education or supervision by parents??? Don't know....all I know is it scares me when these things scoot across right in front of me and my boats.

 

[SLE]

Absolute tragic accident. I'm a bit with KTM 450, there's a ton of variables that none of us know, so who am I to sit here and cast blame or call it criminal as some one this board have indicated from the seat infront of my keyboard? I not sure anyone her really knows all the facts of what happened, by everyone has an assumption and opinion. I can't begin to imagine what the families of either child have gone through or are going though. My thoughts and prayers are with both. I also can't begin to fathom the guilt and stress that the jet ski rider or boat driver are probably dealing with, there fault or not. It was a tragic situation, and terrible on all accounts. I have young children and spending all of our free time at the lake doing much of the same as this situation, it make me want to cry and sick to my stomach at the same time.

For those that want to cast blame, how many of you have your tether on your boat tied to you when your underway? I'm at the lake every free weekend that I have and I have never seen a boat driver with one, including myself. All of my boats over the last decade all have a kill switch made for a tether next to the throttle. I bet most don't even realize they have one. considering there's no spring return on a boat throttle, what happens if you have a heart attack, aneurysm, or some other health issue while running down the lake at 40, 50, 60 or more mph? how about when you hit that submerged floating log with a glancing blow and you get thrown from the boat? food for thought.

 

[fly2cast]

Would a restriction on motor size work to prevent accidents? For example, on smaller lakes jet skis larger than x would be banned. I don't know how this accident happened or how fast he was going but it seems to me that if the jet ski was going slower it at least wouldn't travel so far if someone fell off.

Maybe this would be a solution maybe not. I've never owned a jet ski and never will. I hate those things.

 

[NDSportsman]

A small lake like that should be idle speed only IMO.

Brewer Lake is about the same size and I think it's got a speed limit and no jet skis allowed.

 

[JMF]

Terrible tragedy, prayers to the families. I don't think limiting, restricting or banning something is going to fix or prevent anything (think gun control) when humans are involved.

 

[dean nelson]

A small lake like that should be idle speed only IMO.

Brewer Lake is about the same size and I think it's got a speed limit and no jet skis allowed.

People built on that lake so they could go tubing and skiing and riding jet skis. You can't legislate away all accident it's impossible and stupid to even try. Sometimes shit goes wrong and accidents happen! The reality is a lot of you sound like anti-gun people saying we should get rid of jet skis because there was an accident even though a jet ski is an inanimate object without a human using it just like a gun. So what do we do make everyone go slow wear full body flotation device and a full face helmet every time they want to take a cruise on the lake? In the end it was a horrible accident but making knee jerk reactions to it doesn't solve anything just makes for more rules that in the end chip away at our personal freedoms.

 

[NDSportsman]

I'm not one for banning things either but there is a place to tube and jet ski and a tiny lake like this isn't one of them. Especially with all of the people that appear to utilize it for recreation. Common sense has left the world but I don't really care since I don't go there anyway.

 

[guywhofishes]

People built on that lake so they could go tubing and skiing and riding jet skis. You can't legislate away all accident it's impossible and stupid to even try. Sometimes shit goes wrong and accidents happen! The reality is a lot of you sound like anti-gun people saying we should get rid of jet skis because there was an accident even though a jet ski is an inanimate object without a human using it just like a gun. So what do we do make everyone go slow wear full body flotation device and a full face helmet every time they want to take a cruise on the lake? In the end it was a horrible accident but making knee jerk reactions to it doesn't solve anything just makes for more rules that in the end chip away at our personal freedoms.

there's nothing wrong with a few small lakes being idle only - gives a place for other forms of recreation that are impossible on the "action sports" lakes

also seems to very effectively curb "drunk jackwagon" issues - that's pretty interesting

 

[dean nelson]

That argument makes literally no sense! So because there are so many people tubing on that Lake they shouldn't be allowed to tube on that late because there's too many of them? The people recruiting on that Lake are doing so for tubing and skiing and booze cruising and for basically no other reason cuz it's not much of a fishing lake. So you can't really have one without the other cuz to remove one variable would be to kill off the other and the entire reason why most people are there in the first place.

 

[guywhofishes]

I'm not arguing they should change that lake to idle only now that the horse is out of the barn

I am arguing that there is a circumstance where idle only works great on small lakes - and it's not driven by "retarded safety police" policies you're ranting against

 

[Bfishn]

Strawberry Lake is a recreational lake surrounded by cabins much like Isabel, Brush etc. Its a common place for people from Bismarck and Minot to have cabins who dont fish. Starting to enact restrictions based on one freak bad accident would be pretty ridiculous. Like a post above me, how many people wear their boat kill switch? There is no stopping a boat if something goes wrong, it doesn't idle down like a ski.

 

[guywhofishes]

I wear mine

#guywithdeathbytillerparanoia

 

[Velva_zv21]

I do not want to see strawberry lake idle only....I live 20 min from strawberry and would like to take my kids tubing when ther old enough.... I'm not going to let this accident stop me from doing the things I enjoy or would like to do. It was an accident

 

[guywhofishes]

lol - not to worry

we can and should discuss things on NDA, but it’s not like NDSportsman is going to testify at the state legislature to get them to change it

pffft... who would do that

 

[701FishSlayer]

Not sure if true. Heard he failed initial breathalyzer, and was infact hammered.