Woman On Sea Ray Crashes Into Disney Ferry

[MM32830]

Up to the minute info on this story at WFTV:

http://www.wftv.com/news/23279516/d...lc_break&ts=T&tmi=orlc_break_1_01150104272010





_________________
Armand

 

[mikelan6]

Ummm ... the ferrys do not sail by the treehouse villas. That had to have been the boat launch from Port Orleans. Why don't they get the news right???

 

[DisneyTaylors]

Unless I am mistaken, I believe there is a section of the canal that runs from POR to DD where you pass several of the Treehouse Villas. It might have just been in that area and they simply reported that as the location.

Terrible to hear of her injury though.

- Bill

 

[Joshua_me]

Good grief !

Folks have to remember that those things don't have brakes.

(Well, some of the newest ones sort of do...)

At any rate I hope she'll be alright.

 

[corky441]

I tend to side with the Disney boat captain on this one -

I've seen how people blast thru the "no Wake" areas of that waterway -
if the small boat went under the larger boat it had to moving at an incredible amount of speed. The Disney boats don't begin to go fast enough to climb over the top of another boat.

I didn't see what time the incident happened, but i don't think the rentals can be out after dark - but I could be wrong.

 

[DavidandLeahZ]

Seems fortunate that she went UNDER the boat and survived.

 

[maroo]

What a nightmare for everyone. I hope she is ok.


I feel bad for the Disney World press office.

 

[DVCsince02]

Where's Thommy?

 

[wdwfreeksince88]

Ummm ... the ferrys do not sail by the treehouse villas. That had to have been the boat launch from Port Orleans. Why don't they get the news right???

I edited this cause I just got what you said i was thinking the boat launch was called the ferry but the only ferry i know of is at seven seas lagoon

 

[PrincessSuzanne]

You're supposed to stay a certain distance away from the ferries anyway, like 50 feet, if I remember correctly. And I thought there were certain areas that were off limits over that way anyway.

When we rent, it is from the GF marina, because of the wake zones near those resorts and DTD.

Suzanne

 

[WDWLVR]

The Trumbo Ferry is the name of the boats that go between Old Key West, Saratoga Springs, and Downtown Disney (maybe Port Orleans as well).

 

[Stumpy]

It's unfortunate and I don't know if the story has been updated since some of the posts, but the woman has reportedly suffered permanent heard damage and a collapsed lung.

I also noticed that the husband has also already retained an attorney. While we don't yet know if he has plans to sue, I'm going to be very disappointed if he tries. First, it appears to clearly be a judgment error on his part and second, aren't there laws that the larger vessel has the right of way? Hopefully someone with some nautical knowledge might clarify that.

 

[Applemomma]

It's unfortunate and I don't know if the story has been updated since some of the posts, but the woman has reportedly suffered permanent heard damage and a collapsed lung.

I also noticed that the husband has also already retained an attorney. While we don't yet know if he has plans to sue, I'm going to be very disappointed if he tries. First, it appears to clearly be a judgment error on his part and second, aren't there laws that the larger vessel has the right of way? Hopefully someone with some nautical knowledge might clarify that.

I see the article says that there are charges pending against the husband so perhaps he hired the attorney in part because of that.

This may well have been one of those "I'm at Disney and nothing bad can happen" kind of things .... if that's what it is it's so sad she's going to permantly have to deal with the reprecussion of it, regardless of fault.

 

[aurorae]

You're supposed to stay a certain distance away from the ferries anyway, like 50 feet, if I remember correctly.

The boat from Port Orleans goes right in front of Tree House Villas on the way to DTD. There are some spots where the river is not very wide, I doubt you could stay 50 feet away from the boat in all places on that river.

Those boats do not go very fast. She must have broadsided it, it would be pretty hard to get in front of it and stop and then wait to let it run over you.

 

[monkeyknuckler]

I would be very surprised if it wasn't the renters fault. I took one of those out last time I was there. Those small boats are very agile and can turn and slow down very quickly. If you are paying attention, there's no way a ferry is gonna sneak up on you.

 

[katscradle]

Watched the news report and things do not add up!

I am thinking it was the husband's fault!

 

[DebºoºS]

The husband hired a lawyer because he was driving and was accused of driving recklessly by the ferry boat captain.

JMHO the husband is in the wrong and he knows it. Those little boats are very agile and slow especially with two adults in it. He would've seen the ferry if he'd been paying attention and had plenty of time to get out of it's way. The toughest part of driving them is navigating the wakes left behind the ferries. If at any point he thought was in trouble he could've waved his arms and alerted the spotters they have out on the bay watching all the Searaycers.

 

[BriarRosie]

I definitely think it was an idiotic guest moment. I've rented water craft before, and every guest is told about keeping proper distance away from the Disney boat launches. I think the husband was driving recklessly if he was that close to a Disney boat.

 

[3guysandagal]

The husband stated that "he thought the ferry was going to back up".
He tried to avoid the ferry, and then they collided.
Doesn't sound like too good of an excuse for being that close to one of the ferry boats, I know it wouldn't work for me in a traffic accident.
(Honest officer, I thought he would move out of my way!)
Also, if you watch the news reports re-enactment, they show the driver (husband) on the left hand side of the boat (right hand drive), the husband says he turned right to avoid, the re-enactment shows a left turn.
Poor reporting makes it very confusing to really get a feel of what happened, but sounds like carelessness was the root problem.
I hope the woman recovers, nonetheless.

 

[zulemara]

Where's Thommy?

I'm here!

You guys pretty much covered it. I haven't even read the article yet, but my friends were all txting me when they heard about it. Ppl don't pay attention when they are driving those little sea racers. I can't speak for the ability of those boats at DTD to stop, but I know with our boats it is 1-1.5 boat lengths to stop the boat from full throttle. Ppl cut off our boats all the time at MK. You would think seeing a big 100 ft double decker ferryboat coming at you, ppl would STAY AWAY but they don't! I've even been behind ppl in the water bridge who were taking video, not pay attention to the 66 ft cruiser behind them. I honked the horn very quickly, no reaction, then I blew it hard. That got lake patrol's attention

What bugs me the most is that they call it a Ferry. Yes, by definition, it is a Ferry because it takes people to certain points, but at WDW, we call boats by their specific names because we actually have 1/3 scale ferry boats. That bugs me that the media, in their desire to hurt Disney in every way possible, can't even call the boat what it is in the terms of Disney.