Propeller Accidents Blog 2010

This Blog records news coverage of recent Propeller Accidents and propeller injuries. If you are aware of coverage of a propeller accident or propeller injury not reported here, please contact us

Fatal accidents are coded immediately in front of the reporting data as:

D indicates a U.S. fatality

D indicates a fatality outside the U.S.

This page is part of the Propeller Guard Information Center. Coverage of earlier propeller accidents can be found from there.

DEAD BODY STRUCK 17 February 2010 Statesman (Austin Texas) "Police: Body Found in Lady Bird Lake" reports a rowing team coach was working out a rowing team from Maine on Lady Bird Lake today (17 February) when the propeller of his boat caught on the shirt of an unidenfied body that was a male. He appeared to have been dead for a long time.
PGIC comment - we have seen several other reports of striking floating deceased bodies.

15 February 2010 Sydney Morning Herald (Australia) "Army Cadet Slashed by Boat Propeller" reports a 19 year old army cadet was on a training exercise on a dam northwest of Canberra yesterday, February 14th. He and another cadet fell overboard. The cadet was struck by the propeller "which cut up his left buttock, thigh, and lower back." He was treated onsite, then life flighted to Canberra Hospital.
Another report indicates the accident happened at Burrinjuck Dam in Southwest NSW (New South Wales).
Later news reports and several of our contacts in Australia confirm the injured cadet, Oliver Minchin, is the son of a well known senator, Liberal Senate Leader Nick Minchin.

28 Jan 2010 TVNZ (New Zealand) "Man Gets Leg Stuck in Propeller" reports a male diver, age 58 from Palmerston North, surfaced from a dive in the Marlborough Sounds Thursday afternoon 28 January. His catch bag became caught in a moving propeller, the boat operator quickly put the boat in neutral, but the divers leg became caught in the propeller. A lifeflight crew was called a little after 3pm and flew him to Wellington Hospital with a serious leg injury.
Other reports indicate the boat was taken to Ships Cove to meet the helicopter.
PGIC comment - the industry talks about the risk of entrapment in propeller guards, but the only entrapment cases we see are in open propellers like this one.

18 January 2010 Marlborough Express (New Zealand) "Man Tears Leg on Propeller" reports A 50 year old man from Christchurch was on a boat in Marlborough Sounds on Saturday January 16th. He fell overboard while he was checking the boat's bungs and cut his leg on the propeller. He was taken to Havelock Marina by boat, then by ambulance to Wairau Hospital.

D 11 January 2011 MCOT.net (Thailand) "Russian Tourist Killed by Speedboat in Pattaya" reports Poliakov Oleg, 40 year old male tourist from Russia, was diving the coral reef at Pattaya, in Thailand's Chonburi province, on January 11th. He was about 200 or 300 meters (article lists both distances) off the Pattaya coast in Bang Lamung district (which is outside the diving zone). A private, unregistered speedboat came by and he was struck in the back by its propellers and killed. His body was taken to Bang Lamung Hospital for an autopsy.
Other reports indicate he and another diver may have just surfaced before they were struck, and that his body may have been cut in half.

6 Jan 2010 Nelson Mail (New Zealand) "Helicopter Rescues Far More Common" reports a 53 year old farmer from North Canterbury was on a moored boat in Torrent Bay in Abel Tasman National Park about 6 am this morning (6 January). He slipped from his boat "suffering deep cuts to his leg from the boat's propeller."

3 Jan 2010 COMMERCIAL ACCIDENT Philstar.com (Philippines) "Sea Mishap off North Cagayan: 22 North Korean Survivors Are Legal Aliens" reports 22 North Koreans were on a cargo ship (M/V Nam Yang 8) carrying magnetite that ran aground before dawn January 1st off Cagayan on the South China Sea Coast. "One of the passengers was injured by the propeller of the ship." Their vessel washed ashore off Barangay Pasaleng in Pagudpud, Ilocos Norte.

2 Jan 2010 News24 (South Africa) "Man Struck by Propeller" reports from Durban that a boat carring several people was off the Umkomaas coast (Umkomaas is a town on south coast of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa) on Saturday 2 January. The boat was struck by a rouge wave, one man was ejected and stuck by the boat's propeller. "He sustained a massive head injury", was taken to Netcare Kingsway Hospital, then to St. Augustine's Hospital in Durban.