Vegas family offers safety lesson after boat sinks

BOULDER CITY, Nev. (AP) - Cathy Torrance remembered her family deciding when the winds picked up on Lake Mohave that it was time to turn the boat toward home.

By then it was too late.

Within minutes, 28 mph gusts were churning three-foot waves on the Colorado River reservoir near Laughlin. The boat was swamped.

"The swells were coming in, and it was just pouring over," Torrance told reporters as she recounted the July 31 experience. "Within seconds we were in the water."

Twelve people in the boat, including seven children under the age of 12, were floating miles from shore.

But everyone had life jackets. Some also clutched seat cushions and other bits of the 24-foot recreational boat. An infant floated in an inner tube watched by older cousins. Another infant floated on an overturned seat cushion.

It took about 20 minutes of praying and shouting, with Torrance's husband and son-in-law waving an orange flag, before three boats finally reached the family. Rangers later towed the capsized boat to shore.

"They couldn't hear us," said 9-year-old Carter Cox, Torrance's grandson. "It was scary."

"You need to wear a life jacket or you die," he said.

That was the lesson the National Park Service hoped to reinforce with a news conference Wednesday at the Lake Mead National Recreation Area's Alan Bible Visitor Center. The recreation area includes Lake Mohave.

"They had all the proper equipment on board their vessel," Park Ranger Laura Anderson said. "The biggest violation we see is people who don't have enough serviceable life jackets, with no tears or rips in them. They have to be U.S. Coast Guard-approved."

Nevada state law and Coast Guard regulations require children under 12 to wear a life jacket on boats and watercraft.

Park Service spokesman Andrew Munoz said the safe ending to a possibly tragic experience offered a reminder for boaters and watercraft enthusiasts using the lakes during the busy month of August.

Seven of 14 boating accidents and swimming fatalities in 2009 occurred between Aug. 1 and Labor Day weekend. There have been three drownings in the recreation area this year.

Anderson said boaters need to be aware of their surroundings, use maps, landmarks and mile markers to determine their location, have enough serviceable gear on board, and use a marine band radio set to channel 16, the emergency channel monitored by dispatch.

Cathy Torrance's daughter, Jennifer Torrance, said the experience has had a lasting impact on her 3-year-old son, Tommy, who now wears his life jacket everywhere.

"He puts his little Hot Wheels boats upside down on the couch and will say, 'Look it's papa's boat!' or 'Papa's boat got upside down and now it's dead,"' Jennifer Torrance said.

"Tommy doesn't like water, and here we were stuck in the middle of the water and sinking."

"This isn't how we planned the trip."