Called out at 1955 and just got back at 0200

[Gary D.]

Do you want to know what is sad? We have a boat accident involving two boats where one sinks, one explodes and 7 of 8 people are injured in a relatively small community and this is all the coverage it gets.

I’m retyping it because it didn’t make it to the Internet. It was a 6” X 2” column in the “B” section page 2.
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TWO BOATS COLLIDE NEAR BLACK LAKE

Coeur d’Alene-
County emergency response units were dispatched Saturday evening to the Coeur d’Alene River for a boat accident near Black Lake.

Two vessels hit one another and a fire broke out. Occupants were forced to jump into the water and two people received burns. None of the passengers sustained life-threatening injuries. The most injured person was transported to Deaconess while six were transported to Kootenai Medical Center for minor injuries. One person was not injured.

It is still unclear what caused the boating accident and whether alcohol was a factor. The Kootenai County Sheriff’s Department is investigating.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
That’s it. Right next to the Community Calendar and above a North Idaho College 6” X 6” add and an ad that is 10” X 12” for a car dealership. Both those ads are in color so you don’t even see the accident.

I passed it twice before Wobbles pointed it out to me.

How do you get the publics attention if stuff like this is no big deal?

Stupid people! Everything is relative. (People get stupid) PGS. (Mix booze and water) MBW. (Get into boats) GIB. OK here goes. PGS + MBW + GIB = LOOTFM
(Lots of overtime for me!).

Gary D.

 

[Gary D.]

Yesterday in a 24-hour period we had 693 calls for service. 222 of those were marine calls and the rest patrol calls. Those poor guys in Marine work their butts off. I did that for 5 years and sorry guy’s, no more.

See, our boaters are frickin nut cases.

Gary:

I live along the Allegheny River in Western Pennsylvania. The area is reported to have the most registered power boats, second only to Dade County Florida in the US. We don't have 222 calls in the entire area in 10 years. Do they have boater safety requirements in your jurisdiction?

If I weren't 47 and firmly entrenched in PA, I'd apply. Boating, diving, and law enforcement. What a job!

We have VOLUNTARY boater safety requirments. We have been fighting an up hill battle to get the laws changed. It is happening slow but surely. We have strict laws but the general public could care less about them.

Here is just some of the general stuff. http://boat-ed.com/id/handbook/

Come on over. I'm 10 years older than you and the dive team is the only thing keeping me from doing the retire thing. I love the excitement and doing the job. If we only had a couple of calls a year I say Austa La By By but we don't so I won't.

Boating around here is like running through a Phyc Ward Naked. Nobody gives a dam.

Gary D.