Sorry to hear of this boat wreck and my condolences to family and friends of the deceased.

Speaking of fog, we had a lower level MLF on Table Rock last fall. I believe it was clear at the launch, but where we were fishing on the James River arm it was thick fog. About a half dozen of those guys blasted through there on plane and you could not see 50 feet in that stuff. We stayed on the bank fishing until it lifted.

here's couple pictures of Flint's boat....not sure what happened...

Hit a Striper guide boat parked on a hump. Don't run in fog folks.

Sad but true. I was a boat official for MLF for four years, and I was shocked at how many of those guys, experienced guys, that were not that proficient at driving a boat. I'll leave it right there.

I feel bad for him and his family, but I feel worse for the people he killed due to a poor decision. Unfortunately he is going to have to pay a price for being negligent. Bad deal all the way around but totally avoidable.

Whole lot of assumptions going on when none of us were there.
Seems like there are more and more accidents happening.
Is it because anyone can buy a 70+ mph boat, regardless of if they can drive it or not. Or, is it just more reported now due to unsocial media?

I mean you don't kill someone idling in the fog. You have to be going pretty fast. I guess you can technically call it an assumptions but to me its pretty much common sense. Let me rephrase:

Someone was performing unsafe boating techniques given the conditions and now a person is dead because of it.

It has been my experience that boating accidents don't just happen if you're paying attention and being safe (Minus the occasional hitting something under the water).

For example:

Nik Kayler: Drowned because his boat thought he could make it across Big O in the wind
The 2 HS kids and their captain who were sucked into the dam at whatever that lake was a few years ago
The guy on fb who ended up on the bank because he hit a wave going to fast
The college kids who spun and got throw out of the boat because they went across a boat wave to fast and didn't slow down
Countless other incidents that have come about over the last few years (people running up on dams or islands)

It is either incompetence or negligence. Take your pick.

Kind of like blaming the gun and not the shooter.

So how would limit the sport ? this is a sad thing for every body involved.

Fast boats have been around for decades. It’s the Indian not the arrow and there are a lot of dumb Indians out there.

Manslaughter charges are going to be hard to recover from these days. I knew a young man years ago who had a traffic accident that killed the other driver, he was just a young inexperienced driver but was at fault, it took him a long time to recover financially from it.

There have been A LOT of boating accidents the last two years. Seems like far more than there were in years past.

When GPS first came out and we would fish Squaw Creek in late winter/early spring, hearing a big engine running wide open in the fog would send a chill up your spine. You knew someone was running by GPS.

Looks like the tournament has been cancelled, guessing this is SOP for MLF is ever there was a fatality involving a competitor in one of their events https://whnt.com/news/alabama-news/authorities-investigating-incident-on-smith-lake/

Boaters like we have now have not been around for decades. Watch how people drive vehicles today as you go home from work, kinda scary isn’t it, phones and other distractions that have people’s attention. And let’s don’t leave out just plain bad drivers. Now add in a boat that will run 70+ with no brakes. Kids 16 to senior citizens, all you have to do is be able to make the payment or have parents that will. No I don’t blame the boat I blame the boaters or whoever’s furnishing them the boat.