Wednesday, April 07, 2010
Following up on that drowning in the D & R Canal
Regular readers will recall that on Sunday afternoon I happened upon the aftermath of a tragic drowning in the Delaware & Raritan Canal. I had heard that three canoeists had gone in to the drink when they capsized their boat, and only two had surfaced. The subsequent news story from The Trentonian confirms that the three young men had life preservers, but that they were not wearing them:
The deceased and survivors were roommates in Plainsboro. “All three are inexperienced canoeists, as well as inexperienced swimmers,” said Emann, adding that none of the men was wearing a life jacket despite having life jackets in their boat.
Cause of death: Male ego.
4 Comments:
By 
Simon Kenton, at
Wed Apr 07, 07:36:00 PM:
Years ago I was talking with a woman outfitter who runs the Cataract Canyon reach of the Colorado. We were discussing a canoeist who had recently drowned in a very mild reach upstream while paddling with a young woman. She wore her lifejacket. He wore full camo, combat boots, and a Smith Model 29 with the 8 3/8" barrel and a full cylinder of 240-grain .44s. We figured he accelerated down at close to 1G. Her comment about the cause of death was, "He exceeded the MLD50 for testosterone."
By 
, at
Wed Apr 07, 11:31:00 PM:
At least it was his choice.
OTOH, how many people are crushed to death in car accidents because they are required by law to wear seat belts?
By Gary Rosen, at
Thu Apr 08, 03:58:00 AM:
"OTOH, how many people are crushed to death in car accidents because they are required by law to wear seat belts?"
My offhand guess is approximately zero. If you are in an accident violent enough that you get "crushed to death" you sure as hell didn't have the time to escape seat belt or not.
If you want to make a principled libertarian argument on seat belt laws, great, but all you did here was prove you are using an accurate pseudonym.
By , at
Sun Apr 11, 08:56:00 AM:
Respect for the dead.
We didn't need the last little jibe, about a person who just died, did we? A bit of empathy and respect for those who aren't around to defend themselves.
