Weight Miscalculation Led to Boat Accident
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From Times Wire Reports
A water taxi capsized and killed five people in Baltimore Harbor in 2004 because excessive passenger weight made the boat too unstable to withstand a sudden gust of wind, the National Transportation Safety Board said.
The Coast Guard had assumed the average weight per passenger was 140 pounds, a standard that hasn’t changed since 1942, the safety board said.
The average weight among the Lady D’s 25 passengers when the accident happened was 168 pounds, making it hundreds of pounds overweight, investigators said.
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