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Thread: Boat may have been going 100 mph...

  1. #1
    burbanite
    ...before fatal crash, investigator says
    Post staff report
    A boat that crashed and apparently killed the Northern Kentucky man driving it had a mammoth 800-horsepower engine and might have been going up to 100 miles per hour at the time of the wreck, according to an investigator.
    That's too fast for a pleasure boat, investigators said.
    Witness interviews were helping investigators piece together what happened Sunday while the search for the missing man was scheduled to resume today.
    Graham Codrington, 39, of Petersburg, presumably drowned in an accident Sunday in the Ohio River near Aurora, Ind., that injured his four passengers, including a 10-year-old boy who suffered broken bones. A search for Codrington's body was to resume today after searches late Sunday and most of Monday were fruitless.
    The heavily-damaged, 22-foot boat apparently hit rough water and crashed about 4:30 p.m. Sunday. Investigators today were still trying to determine what type of rough water it might have encountered.
    "We think it hit a wake, but we're not sure if it flipped over or went under the water," said Sgt. Bill Baumbauer of the Indiana Department of Natural Resources, which is investigating the crash.
    The boat was capable of going 100 miles per hour because of its 800-horsepower, V-8 engine, he said. "It's a marine engine, but it's built like an auto engine," said Baumbauer. "It's an extraordinarily powerful engine." Witnesses estimated the boat's speed "at between 70 and 100 miles per hour and they said he was really flying," Baumbauer said.
    "That's too fast for any recreational boat. Racers go that fast, but they're wearing equipment that protects them."
    Ten-year-old Matt Knapp suffered a broken tibia and broken fibula and also had neck and back pain. He was treated at Children's Hospital Medical Center in Cincinnati. The boy's father, Matthew Knapp Sr., suffered minor injuries and was not hospitalized. Heather Fitzgerald, 27, of Lawrenceburg, Ind., suffered a leg laceration and Mark Krumpelman, 27, of Petersburg, suffered a broken leg. They were treated at Dearborn County Hospital in Lawrenceburg.
    The search for Codrington's body involved divers, dragging operations, sonar equipment and an underwater camera. "The river was moving too fast (Monday) and we had to take the divers out of the water," said Baumbauer. "It's possible the body could have gone pretty far downstream with the fast river."
    Here is a link to the video report. Open the video and choose "Full Window" to get a clearer picture of the boat involved.
    And another....
    The high-speed accident happened six weeks after another high-speed boating accident on the Ohio River. Six people were injured June 27 near Dayton when their boat was hit by a speedboat.
    That incident remains under investigation, with authorities awaiting results of tests they did on a 40-foot speedboat owned by a Columbus man to determine if that craft was involved in the collision.
    So far, no charges have been filed.
    This is a pic of the boat allegedly involved in this incident, the boat ran over another one and then took off at speed...
    [img]http://www.***boat.com/image_center/data/500/61boat.jpg[/img]
    Note the damaged drive unit.

  2. #2
    superdave013
    I've been on the Mighty Ohio river a ton of times. Have you ever seen the rollers that one of those coal barges put out? And those barges are all over.
    No way would a 22' boat hit those at 100mph and not get into trouble.

  3. #3
    JetBoatRich
    sounds like a rough place, that boat looks bigger than 22'

  4. #4
    Dave C
    That looks like a 25 Daytona or DCB.
    Really big rollers out there? It must have been a big ass roller to make that thing flip.

  5. #5
    twistedpair
    That pic is of the boat in the second story, 40 footer. Check out the outdrives, looks like he definitely hit something.

  6. #6
    burbanite
    And another...
    A bigger pic...
    [img]http://www.***boat.com/image_center/data/500/6170014_G.jpg[/img]

  7. #7
    superdave013
    Dave C:
    Really big rollers out there? It must have been a big ass roller to make that thing flip. Ever see a Tug pushing 40-50 barges loaded with coal? I have alot of respect for those guys. They can put those things through the locks just perfect. It's pretty cool to see.
    The Ohio river is not always rough. But it's one big ass river and you need to know what's up if you boat out there. I have some pics of it that I took at Mount Vernon, In.
    [ August 22, 2003, 09:49 AM: Message edited by: superdave013 ]

  8. #8
    superdave013
    Here's the Ohio River looking east. That's Kentucky on the other side and an island in the middle.
    [img]http://www.***boat.com/image_center/data/520/9ohio_river-med.jpg[/img]
    Looking west. It's much bigger then it looks in these pics.
    [img]http://www.***boat.com/image_center/data/520/9ohio_river2-med.jpg[/img]
    And one for the Indaina guys. My grandmother lived in Mount Vernon all her life. She passed away not to long ago so I don't really have a reason to go there any more. Good quail hunting in that area.
    [img]http://www.***boat.com/image_center/data/520/9ohio_river3-med.jpg[/img]

  9. #9
    burbanite
    Yep,
    when you get 700' of barge displacing water it can rival the thrills of the Cortez Bank wink

  10. #10
    HavasuDreamin'
    The Ohio River is definately very tricky to navigate. I was down there the day this accident occurred, however I was on a different stretch of the river near Carrollton, KY so I didn't see the accident.
    The rollers that the barges throw off are definately tricky to maneuver through. They are tough to spot when running pretty hard and come up on you real quick. The current also does funky things to a tunnel by pulling/pushing you when driving in chop. My guess is the guy hit a roller going to fast and that is all she wrote. frown
    [ August 22, 2003, 11:24 AM: Message edited by: HavasuDreamin' ]

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