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Editor: Rod Sullivan
Profession: Maritime Attorney

Category: Boating Accidents

Most of us assume we are safe from carbon monoxide inhalation if we are outdoors. However, in the past ten years at least seven people, including three children have been killed after being overcome by carbon monoxide while playing on or around the swim platforms on houseboats.

In older houseboats the gasoline generator exhaust exits the boat at the transom. While Mom and Dad are running the air conditioning and watching television, CO is being pumped out the stern. The kids, who don't know any better, play under the swim platform where the CO becomes trapped in a void area. In one case, two brothers, aged 8 and 11 were killed. One lost consciousness and slipped beneath the surface. The other began convulsing and fell over the side. Their bodies were recovered the next day. In another case a boy playing on a swim platform lost consciousness and fell into the water, drowning. In all three cases, CO poisoning was confirmed to be the cause of the loss of consciousness. The cause of death was drowning.

It takes less than two minutes of exposure to the highly concentrated fumes for a child to lose consciousness. The same has happened to at least one man who was trying to free a line which had become wound around the propeller. Newer houseboats have been modified so that the exhaust discharges over the side where it is less likely to become trapped and concentrated.