The gods of personal watercraft giveth and the gods of personal watercraft taketh away. Two days ago, The Watercraft Journal was excited to announce how BRP, through their BRP Powercraft Equipment Grant, has recommitted to supporting Surf Life Saving (SLS) in its effort to improve emergency response along Australia’s coastlines. By providing SLS with a state-of-the-art Sea-Doo GTI personal watercraft, Can-Am off-road vehicles and even Evinrude outboard engines for their boats.
Unfortunately, that brand-new GTI Rescue craft was recently involved in an accident where a female volunteer sped through a no-wake zone, racing past families on PWC and boats and narrowly missing fellow SLS lifesavers standing on a floating dock who were on-site to oversee the rescue of a sunken jet boat. The SLS volunteer, aboard the recently acquired Sea-Doo ran the ski squarely into the dock, ramping it up and out of the water and bringing it to a halt.
Thankfully, nobody was hurt and the volunteer was taken by EMTs to the hospital for shock. Authorities are investigating whether the matter was due to a “mechanical issue,” but the video below clearly shows the volunteer piloting the Sea-Doo with her left arm dangling straight down only seconds before colliding with the dock. Of course, this flies in the face of Sea-Doo’s entire intent of the iBR system, wherein riders will never have to remove take their hands from the handlebars. Clearly, this volunteer didn’t grasp the concept.
