Long Island Waters Remain Treacherous One Year After Tragedy

This story was reported and written by Joe Dowd and Heather Doyle

The calls came in late one night last week: Numerous eyewitnesses reported seeing a parachute drop into the darkened waters of Long Island Sound, not far from Oyster Bay. 

No one -- not a bay constable, police boat, Coast Guard unit -- were anywhere nearby to answer the multiple distress call, sources told Patch. Realizing the situation, a North Hempstead bay constable and a Nassau County Police vessel responded. It took 22 minutes to arrive. They found nothing.

The incident proved to be a false alarm, but had people been in the water, they likely would have died, experts said.

This unreported incident illustrates the serious concerns of boating authorities who say not nearly enough is being done to protect lives on the vast waters surrounding Long Island.

Hearings were held and a much-heralded bill has been signed into law requiring young boaters to be certified by the state. But experts say the law has no teeth, a legal "window dressing" designed to respond to the tragedy on Oyster Bay one year ago today.

"They might as well have done nothing," said Huntington Harbor Master Harry Acker, who openly criticized the law's lax requirements for boaters. "It's disrespectful."

"It's window dressing and doesn't correct the real dangers we see every day on the water," said Christopher Briggs, a North Hempstead Bay Constable and president of the Bay Constable Benevolent Association.

A wave of outrage followed the sinking of the Kandi Won. The 34-foot cabin cruiser loaded down with 27 people capsized and sank at the conclusion of the Dolan family's annual fireworks display. Three children -- cousins David Aureliano, 12, of Kings Park, and Harlie Treanor, 11, of Huntington Station, and family friend Victoria Gaines, 7, of Huntington -- were trapped inside the cabin as it filled with water and died.

We on Long Island are surrounded by a vast aquatic playland, enticing waters we associate with our youth and summer afternoons on the Sound and the sea. Few realize just how quickly a carefree outing can suddenly turn deadly.

Joy Treanor lost her daughter in the Oyster Bay tragedy. For a year now she has been advocating for stricter regulations on the area's waterways. Her conclusion: Much more needs to be done, and now.

"I don’t want anyone else to endure the loss my family and I have," said Treanor. "There needs to be more cooperation and organization between agencies. The Nassau County Marine Bureau, the Coast Guard and the Town of Oyster Bay have been cutting back on patrols while others have increased theirs."

Experts say that law does nothing to address the thousands of older boaters who are ignorant or indifferent to safe boating operations. Coast Guard records for fatal boating crashes in 2012 indicate nearly three-quarters involved operators who had no boating safety training.

Training alone isn't enough: What's needed, experts told Patch, is more patrols, stricter enforcement and more money to fund new equipment and manpower.

Obvious loopholes in the new law, like the 120-day grace period between getting a boat and taking a safety course, made the law "all but useless," Acker said. Any 17-year-old can operate a boat all summer long this year without the certificate. The law doesn't take effect until next May. 

Perhaps worse is the condition of many of the vessels being used by bay constables. Many of these patrol boats are made of fiberglass, rated for 10 years of service by the Coast Guard. Many are twice that old and still operating. At least one such vessel was built in 1969 and is still operating on the North Shore.

"This far exceeds the life span of the boat and puts the public and the responding officers in jeopardy," said Briggs. "And no matter what the conditions on the sea, we will respond to a distress call." 

While the new law is a beginning, Acker said the regulations could have been much tougher. 

In fact, in a follow up report issued Wednesday, Nassau District Attorney Kathleen Rice recommended some form of federal and state licensing for all boaters, somewhat like drivers are licensed by the state through the DMV. Any such proposal would face widespread political opposition, observers say.

In Huntington, bay officials and law enforcement formed a committee after the Oyster Bay tragedy to reevaluate their own safety regulations. The committee also brought in residents, club members, and teachers to "bring a new point of view to the table," Acker said. An emergency dive team was formed.

But other than some localized efforts, boating experts said virtually nothing has changed that could prevent the loss of those three children last year. And those same experts say more people are certain to die in Long Island's waters if nothing is done.

For example:

• There are few trained divers to perform search and rescue on any of the north shore harbors. If a boat capsizes and people are submerged, they are unlikely to survive.
• Briggs and the Bay Constable union have secured the purchase of 10 diver's air tanks and are actively training new divers in search and rescue procedures, known as the Rapid Diver System. Briggs said many more trained divers are needed and the effort takes time and money.
  
• The annual fireworks on Oyster Bay that drew hundreds of vessels to the harbor last year has been cancelled. Instead, many of those same boaters will travel to Asharoken to view the fireworks over Huntington Harbor. Just as on Oyster Bay last year, not nearly enough patrol boats will be available to cover the range of dangerous scenarios on a dark, congested harbor and boats filled with Independence Day revelers, experts said.
• Unlike the police, all bay constables do not work around the clock, leaving boaters to fend for themselves in some emergencies. For example, there are U.S. Coast Guard stations in Kings Point and Eatons Neck, but neither perform routine patrols as they once did.
  

Oyster Bay officials said holiday patrols will end Thursday night at 11 p.m. Last year's capsizing that killed the three children took place shortly after 10 p.m.

Other areas with bigger budgets to dedicate to water safety have heightened security. Town of North Hempstead officials are on duty from 8 a.m.-midnight on weekdays and around the clock on weekends.

Northport authorities say they will have beefed up patrols for Thursday night's July 4th fireworks display on the harbor. It's not clear how many additional patrols will be available for the giant flotilla expected to see the display.

Personal responsibility is critical for boater safety, according to Acker, who urged boaters to put themselves through a proper training course. He hopes that one day, stringent courses will be mandated for all boaters.