It happened last Thursday

Posted by Ken Campbell January 29, 2011 0 Comment 814 views

See if you can find any problems with this scenario:

Three adults in their early 20’s get into a 12-foot rowboat on Star Lake, Federal Way. They row from their house to the tavern on the other side of the lake, sink a few beers, then clamber aboard the boat for their return voyage. On the way back (after 1:00am), the bow of the boat is submerged and the boat founders. All three of the occupants – none of whom was wearing a PFD – begin swimming for shore. Two of them make it, and the third’s body was found by a neighbor, bumping up against the pilings under his dock the next morning. He was 23 years old.

I doubt I need to break it down too much; the mistakes should seem obvious now. And I’m not bringing this up to slam the survivors. I know they are going through enough already without me piling on.

The real lesson here is that we need to get to the point where mistakes are as obvious before they are made as they are in retrospect. Three in a boat, hours of drinking, no life vests… does this not set off bells? It’s not the same thing as predicting the future, but with the right level of forethought, it seems like some futures are pretty easy to predict. For the meantime, if nothing else, at least wear the damn PFD. Prevents Frickin’ Drowning.

As a friend of mine is fond of saying, “If you’re going to be stupid, be smart about it.”

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