A Sad Day.

[jdmidwest]

A guy I have known for many years, the greatest UPS driver around this part, was killed yesterday in a boating accident.

Details are still sketchy, but it appears that Tim and his fishing partner were heading back to weigh in and the boat struck a part of the collapsed bridge that was taken out by a barge on KY Lake a few years back. The motor flipped up and struck Tim in the head killing him on the spot. He was a great guy, always a good laugh. He will be missed.

It just goes to show that life can end in an instant, no matter what we are doing.

http://www.semissourian.com/story/1967973.html

[Mitch f]

Seems like they should have some type of a break away lower unit with shear bolts to prevent that from happening

[jdmidwest]

Still hard to say what exactly happened. Don't know what kind of boat he was in or what happened to kick the motor up into the boat.

There was a similar accident in the same spot last weekend during a tourney, the motor and transom were tore off and no injuries other than the boat.

[Guest]

deleted

[jdmidwest]

The Murray paper mentioned that they may have been out of the channel and cutting across.

[Quillback]

Sorry to hear about your friend. Here's a link to a BBC board thread on this, shows some pictures of the bridge at low water and explains how the accident happened.

http://www.bbcboards.net/bbc-lounge/371872-deadly-boat-crash-ky-lake.html

[jdmidwest]

Wow, they bridge has a screwed up design. Don't see many with the pilings running crossways of the supports. I see what he hit.

[Quillback]

Yeah that bridge would be very dangerous when the water is at the right level, especially for boaters not familiar with the design.

[Wayne SW/MO]

Looking at the picture from the forum it's hard to understand why the bridge isn't marked better. It would be simple to hang a marked cable in the dangerous ones.

[Haris122]

Sorry about your friend JD.