Friday, May 18, 2007

Evidently Gilligan was steering the boat

Boat hits island, fisherman severely injured
A Global Positioning Satellite can't detect everything, a boater in St. Louis County found out Thursday night.
Joseph F. Batkiewicz was returning to his campsite around 11 p.m. after fishing on Namakan Lake on the Canadian border in St. Louis County, Minn. He was using his GPS, but the device did not locate a small un-named island. Batkiewicz found the island when he ran his boat into it.

Batkiewicz, 41, of Monticello, suffered severe facial injuries from hitting the windshield, the St. Louis County Sheriff said.


The technology jihad has started, maybe the "Terminator" scenario is starting to happen already.

Honestly, would something like this have happened prior to GPS technology? Was it a common occurrence for boaters to run into islands during the decades prior to GPS? Did the guy have lights on his boat, was there moonlight, did he put it on cruise control and go back for a beer? Didn't he wonder why there were trees growing right up out of the lake? I just don't understand it.

This guy is a little luckier than a gentleman I just saw recently in a photo that was e-mailed to me by Night Writer. I would label this image as the "Mother of All Boating Accident Victims." I have not had the guts to post the picture, and evidently neither did Night Writer. Just envision a guy laying on a hospital bed, with about a 3 foot long, 18 inch diameter log impaling him right up the rectum area and out his back side. It was one of the most gruesome things I've ever seen, and I've seen pictures of Rosie O'Donnell. (sorry, just thought I'd throw that in)

This is about as perplexing as another serious accident that happened yesterday in MN. Some guy, in a transportation van, ran right into the rear end of a stopped school bus. A student in the back of the bus said he saw the guy coming at a high rate of speed, but it didn't try to stop at all. The driver, and a 14 year old passenger, were both killed instantly. It seems pretty hard to miss the sight of a stopped school bus in the road, especially in broad daylight; but for whatever reason, this guy didn't see it.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I had that pictue and inadvertantly deleted it. What are the chances of getting it again? Send to slimjater@hotmail.co if you will.