Catch this!!! Yeah, I think a PWC manufacturer should me making "boats"...
Pontoon boat in deadly Flagstaff Lake incident is subject of recall
The Sea-Doo Switch has the potential to capsize, the recall notice says.The 2024 Sea-Doo Switch pontoon boat that capsized Saturday on Flagstaff Lake in Eustis, killing three people from New York, was the subject of a safety recall issued in February.
Bombardier Recreational Products, headquartered in Valcourt, Quebec, manufactures Sea-Doo products, and announced the recall for Switch pontoon boats with the model years 2022-25.
“Improper distribution of passengers and cargo weight could overload the front of the watercraft and cause instability, nosediving and possibly lead to capsizing. The condition worsens if water evacuation from the hull is not optimal. This could cause serious injuries or even death,” the recall notice said.
A Jacksonville, Florida, couple filed a lawsuit against the Canadian boat manufacturer and a dealership in February after a boating accident involving a 13-foot Sea-Doo Switch pontoon boat left their child with traumatic brain injuries.
The 15-month-old was trapped underwater when the boat encountered waves and suddenly flipped, Jacksonville Today reported.
The Switch “is prone to flipping. It is an extremely dangerous vessel,” the couple’s lawyer told the news outlet.
According to Mark Latti, spokesman for the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, witnesses saw the boat begin to go under near the beach area of the Cathedral Pines Campground.
Witnesses reported that the driver, John Morris, 50, of Eustis, attempted to raise the bow, but it continued to go under and the boat flipped, throwing all seven passengers into the water about 180 feet from shore, Latti said.
Morris’ boat was not being used in a commercial manner.
Morris declined comment when reached by a Sun Journal reporter on Thursday.
Investigators are aware of the recall, Latti said Thursday.
“We have been aware of it since the crash happened and that is part of the investigation,” Latti wrote in an email.
A boat license is not required to drive a pontoon boat. However, anyone born after Jan. 1, 1999, has to complete a boater safety course in order to operate a boat 25 horsepower or greater, Latti said.
Eustis Fire Department had a firefighter on the scene within two minutes of the 911 call, with another member of the department arriving quickly after, fire Chief Sprague Wise said Thursday. A nurse was at the campground and also helped with CPR along with others at the campground, he said.
Witnesses on the shore and on the lake rushed to assist those in the boat, and were able to get all seven people on board to the shore, Wise said. Three of the passengers were unresponsive and CPR was performed on all three.
Farhana Nasir, 53, of Selden, New York, and Kiran Akbar, 23, of Lake Grove, New York, died at the scene on Saturday. Noor Nasir, 22, also of Selden, who had been in critical condition when she was airlifted to the Bangor hospital, died Tuesday night.
