SAN ANTONIO — The Coast Guard is sounding a warning about a very popular kind of boat. Chances are you, or a family member, has been on board one. As News 4 Trouble Shooter Jaie Avila reports, a number of people were killed or seriously injured by something the boat has a tendency to do.
They’re called Texas flats boats or bay boats. They have a thinner hull for getting around in shallow water along the Texas gulf coast. That has made them a favorite of fishermen in the San Antonio area.
But the coast guard says this style of boat can suddenly go out of control, injuring or killing passengers.
In July of 2012, 16-year-old Kali Gorzell was thrown off of a friends bay boat during a fishing trip in Port Aransas.
“They were having a really fantastic day. They were sharing photos with us,” said Kali’s father, James Gorzell.
While making a turn at a relatively slow speed, the boat spun around 180 degrees.
“Suddenly the boat completely swapped ends. Kali was not in the boat. They heard a big thump on the engine,” James Gorzell said.
Kali had been struck in the head and neck by the boat’s propeller.
“The doctor came in and said that they worked on her for two hours but they couldn’t bring her back and you know, of course, that was like the end of the world.”
Kali’s parents learned of other tragic accidents involving the same style of boat.
Last year, sixth grader Michael Dominguez of San Antonio was thrown from his father’s boat. His leg was so badly mangled by the propeller he needed skin grafts.
“I was thrown off the boat and the boat propeller caught my leg,” Michael Dominguez said after the accident.
And just last October, 57-year-old Janis Lindeman of Blanco was killed when she fell off of a flats boat and was hit by the propeller.
James and Donna Gorzell reached out to Cody Jones, an Assistant Commander with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. It turns out one of his game wardens had been thrown from a flats boat.
“It swapped ends on him and he was thrown from the vessel and injured,” Jones said.
With Jones’s help the Gorzell’s convinced the U. S. Coast Guard to take the boat that killed Kali, and another flats boat to a testing facility in Maryland. Video of the test was obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request. A private research team hired by the Coast Guard outfitted the two flats boats so they could be driven by remote control. Researchers attempted hard turns with the boats at 25 miles per hour, a routine maneuver for other boats.
Cody Jones went to Maryland and witnessed the tests.
“The vessel would uncontrollably do a 180 degree turn with the motor coming out of the water exposing the propeller,” Jones said.
The study by the Coast Guard contractor, CED Technologies, concluded: “It would be difficult to envision how either of the two hull forms could be safely used for recreational boating. In its present form, the two hull forms tested by CED were unsafe.”
However, when the News 4 Trouble Shooters contacted the Coast Guard’s Chief of Boating Safety he told me: “That is the contractor’s position it is not the coast guard’s official position. The coast guard identifies unsafe conditions but we do not declare boats unsafe.”
The agency says it doesn’t have the authority to issue recalls or safety changes. For now, it is “highly recommending manufacturers place a warning label in these types of tested boats to advise the operator of this handling characteristic and consider engineering modifications.”
Kali’s parents say that doesn’t go far enough.
“They shouldn’t manufacture them anymore,” James Gorzell told us.
The Gorzells are working with State Representative Lyle Larson on a bill that would require operators of all boats wear a lanyard connected to a kill switch. So if the driver is knocked off their feet or out of the boat, the engine will stop. The measure would be called Kali’s law.
