Boat Ramp Safety

Every year as we go through the Memorial Week End something happens on the water that makes me think could have been avoided with just a little bit of thought and safety. This past Memorial Day was no different, as I watched from my back deck a truck got backed too far into the water as someone was trying to put their pontoon boat in! Yes it was a bad day for some poor gentleman; he failed to un-strap the back of his boat the truck was backed up to far and the pontoon boat lifted the rear end of the truck up. Well from there you can imagine the rest; the truck slid into the water with no rear wheel traction and before he could react, the truck was covered to the top in water.

Hard to do, maybe, careless for sure; but could have been prevented with just a little safety check before the boat was backed into the water. I can抰 tell you how many times in as many years that someone gets in a hurry to get put in and fails to pay attention to the little things. Believe me this is just one of the many things that can go wrong, but let me tell you where it starts.

I know this may or may not be true for this case, but here is where these careless issues begin. First of all never let anyone do your pre-launch safety checks for you; develop a routine of walking around the boat yourself and checking for the proper safety items. Plug in, straps removed, bow unhooked boat ready to be launched.

Secondly and this I believe is what drives some lack of safety is don抰 get in a hurry. The inexperienced boater should never pull the boat into the launch position and start their safety checks while sitting on the ramp while other boaters are waiting to use the ramp. This forces you to hurry and hence you make a mistake. Stop short of the ramp take your time and be precise about your safety and you will avoid a bad day like this!