Boating safety: a life-or-death matter

Lightning flashed across the night sky on the Fourth of July, and wakes from nearby boats rolled across what were relatively calm waters only minutes earlier. All at once, a 34-foot cabin cruiser named Kandi Won tipped and capsized into Oyster Bay Harbor.

Confusion ensued. The 27 passengers aboard –– including 10 children –– panicked, floundering in the dark, 65-degree water. Nearby boaters hurried to the scene, hurling lifejackets at fear-stricken victims who struggled to stay afloat in the murky, 60-foot-deep harbor.

This is how witnesses described that terrible night, after a fireworks show for which hundreds of boats had gathered in the harbor. It was around 10 p.m., and the show had ended. It was time to head home on what should have been a lovely evening.

Three passengers on the Kandi Won –– 11-year-old Harlie Treanor, daughter of the boat’s owner, Kevin Treanor; 12-year-old David Aurelino; and 8-year-old Victoria Gaines –– died in the accident.

What precisely happened is yet to be determined. The FBI and Nassau County police are investigating. The FBI raised the vessel last week, hoping to discover clues to an accident that captured the nation’s attention. The exact cause of the tragedy, however, may never be determined.

We know this much, however: While the boat may have had 27 life jackets on board, not all of the passengers were wearing them. Many may not have been. Reports about whether the three children who perished were wearing life jackets were mixed. Some witnesses said they had them on. Others said they were not wearing them because they were playing cards in the boat’s cabin, where they would not have been required to wear them. None of the adults were required by law to wear life jackets.

What the accident underscores is just how perplexing the world of boating is. Immediately afterward, critics argued that the Kandi Won was overloaded. Boat captains, professional and amateur, said they never would have taken so many people out on a boat that small. Surely the shifting weight of so many passengers caused it to capsize in choppy waters, they surmised. Some went so far as to say that all the people aboard must have been standing on one side of the boat.