Lisa Gaines could sense the boat sway whenever she closed her eyes in the months after the fatal accident. It felt like vertigo and the end result has been a living nightmare.
Gaines, 45, of Huntington, was sitting on the fly bridge of the Kandi Won when it capsized late July 4 in the waters off Oyster Bay. The 34-foot powerboat was making its way back to Huntington from the annual Dolan family fireworks display when the wake of dozens of vessels spilled Gaines and 26 others aboard into the black water.
Never a good swimmer, Gaines was not wearing a life vest. She struggled to tread water. Her 12-year-old son, Ryan, kept her calm – and afloat.
“My son grabbed me, put his arm around me and said, ‘I got you mom,’” Gaines said. “He saved my life.”
They were both plucked from the water by a passerby about 10 minutes later. But her daughter, 7-year-old Victoria, drowned along with two other children in a tragedy that spurred political action.
Gaines will be on hand Thursday when Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone signs into law the “Suffolk County Safer Waterways Act.” See attached PDF.
Co-sponsored by Legis. Thomas Barraga, R-West Islip; Lynne Nowick, R-St. James; and Steve Stern, D-Dix Hills, the law will require all boaters operating a vessel on Suffolk waterways to complete an approved boating safety course, to possess and display their safety course certificate while boating and be able to produce it upon request by law enforcement agencies.
“People may not realize they are responsible for their wakes. People left in a hurry [July 4],” said Gaines, who along with ex-husband Paul, has fought to enact boating legislation in the three months since. “If these laws were in place and people were required to take courses on an ongoing basis, it would have been in people mind’s how to behave out on the water.”
While Gaines, a sales rep, has no intention of spending time out on the water, she is taking a boating certification course this weekend in Bethpage. She also plans to keep pushing for more legislation at the state and federal level through Victoria Gaines Memorial.com.
“Certification, proper security on the water and capacity laws all would have changed the dynamics of that night," Gaines said. "There’s no doubt in my mind that if one of those three proposed laws would have been in place prior to that day this would not have happened.”
In several states, including Connecticut and Delaware, boating accidents declined 30 percent or more." Let's accept that training can at least limit some tragedies from happening. This grieving mother is trying to make something right come out of something terribly wrong. Her life will never be the same. Enough with the "common sense" comments. I can almost guarantee every single one of us has had a moment where we wished we could go back and time and use our common sense to change the outcome of a life-changing event. And who knows how many times our common sense was lacking but we managed to walk away.
Give me a break.
Section 3, Sub A " No RESIDENT of Suffolk County shall operate a pleasure vessel upon the waters of Suffolk County unless the operator is the holder of a boating safety certificate issued by the Commissioner of the New York State......" bla, bla bla. Do we have any legal folks out there? I interpret that to mean that if I live any where out of Suffolk County, I DO NOT HAVE TO COMPLY WITH THIS LAW. How about it Jason, what does your legal staff say??? How can you have two people operating vessels along side one another, and the Suffolk RESIDENT (without a Cert) is violating the law and the NON Resident is ok???
Did you ever hear of a "run on" sentence? Quatation marks or anything having to do with grammar? It is very difficult to read your statement.
You shouldn't have the choice to do a lot of things. But realistically we live in a society were the choice to do bad things is not preventable . We should be able to operate a car or boat without minimum safety requirements simply because it would be extremely difficult and costly to take that choice away. Currently, the "choice" to drive a car or a boat without proper training is a "choice". It is not even debatable unless cars or boats don't exist. You only have to look at the recent tragic deaths of four teens on the Southern State Parkway to see that the choice exists. Take a drive in your car and see other drivers make bad choices all the time. Then watch a police car pull into traffic and every one becomes angels. Increased enforcement and heavy penalties will go further in reducing these tragedies and will encourage people into taking boating courses voluntarily; which would be the right choice.
Perfectly stated. as I said earlier; "a certificate will not extinguish the complete irresponsibility and the bulletproof carelessness which seems to be the profile of the typical witless Looong Islan-da. end of story.