Was this Captain Licensed?

As tourist season wraps up here on the island you tempt me. I gauge my season as a success if I can make it to Labor Day and still resist the urge to run over the next fool who thinks that under my bow is a good place to be.

Forgive me for veering off-course...

We restrict high speed driving? I guess, to a degree. When's the last time you drove the LIE though? You can't get pulled over doing less than 80 these days. The NYSP have an unofficial 80 limit in any 65 zone depending on traffic... Speaking of which, there are tens to hundreds of thousands of cars daily on our area highways. Traffic tends to slow itself down when things get that crowded. what speed do you think people would do with just "a hundred or so" cars on the road?

How many traffic accidents are there from speeding despite laws in place?

Who's going to pay for the extra cops to police the tourists and weekenders?

We don't allow pistol practice in Times Square is an even more ridiculous analogy. Are you suggesting that we apply Sullivan Act type permit processes to watercraft purchase and possession? Think that one through a little better.

I don't think you really have a grasp on what volunteer rescue workers like and don't like. Maybe the USCG, with their cutters and rollovers and zodiacs love going a mile or ten offshore, but the rest of us, the guys in your local volunteer fire department and such, we're working stiffs, businesspeople, retirees, college kids, husbands, wives, fathers, mothers... people who want to get back to our own families at the end of the call. It amazes me that you would express such callous and wanton disregard for our safety and well-being, while weeping buckets over the disruption to your anchorage. Are our lives less valuable because we volunteer to put ourselves in harm's way when the alarm sounds?

The rules of the road presently apply to the issue you're calling for more laws to apply to. As a licensed captain, I'm certain you're intimiately familiar with US Code TITLE 46, Subtitle II, Part A, CHAPTER 23, Sec. 2302., Penalties for negligent operations and interfering with safe operation.

You must also, as a licensed captain and Long Island resident, be aware of NY State law which states (among other things)

So in light of the foregoing, I beg of you, if the existing unenforced directly applicable laws don't protect you from meeting a jerk like this as you round a bend, what do more unenforced laws do to protect you?

We have an addiction to new laws in this country, thinking that "there oughtta be a law!" is going to protect us when chances are there already is a law. It partly takes enforcement and partly takes penalty, not additional laws. Again, who's paying for the enforcement? If this guy ran high speed in a channel that's not regularly used and at all times within 100' of land, at a late hour, what are the odds of having a water cop out there to enforce the speed limit you desire? If the enforcement isn't there for the laws already in place, another law will do nothing but criminalize heretofore law-abiding and responsible individuals. If the penalty for reckless or negligent operation is $250, is that a deterrent to someone who put double that in his tank to go play for an afternoon?

What's a speeding ticket going to do as a deterrent?

It may feel good and sound good to call for another law, but let's focus on what's going to actually have an effect instead of making a good sound byte.

If you'd like to continue this discussion, let's take it to PMs.

Going PM.

My crew going up/down the coast and good friend John D was first on the scene- he was working night shift for Sea Tow. He called two of the nearby guys from Tow Boat US and then stayed in the Sea Tow boat calling the LEO's- giving location and other details. The LEO's were missing one person and John found him as he exited off the bow... and stepped on the body. The site was certainly far enough away from the bridge that the vessel could have gone thru the bridge at a slow rate of speed. It'll be a long time before John can't come on a accident scene and say "I've seen worse".

Nassau County Police Report

The police report on this 'accident' has been released. The skipper was drunk, speeding and not using his radar.

More Drunks on the water

Yesterday, Antonio Toumbas from Patchogue, NY lost his friend overboard in stormy weather. Because he'd been drinking and has 5 prior DWI convictions and is currently on probation for felony DWI he left his friend in the middle of Great South Bay and refused to call it in. When another person on the boat tried to call it in he knocked the cell phone from her hand. Eventually she was able to call it in. The man hung on to a crab trap in 1' to 2' storm seas for 3 hours before being rescued. Toumbas is currently under arrest.

Antonio sounds like some friend