21 May, 2022, West Bengal, India
Two young rowers drowned on Saturday, 21 May 2022, in West Bengal, India, when their coxed-four was overtaken by a squall on Rabindra Sarobar Lake. Pushan Sadhukan and Souradeep Chatterjee were both fourteen-year-old students rowing with the long-established and prestigious Lake Club. All members of the crew surfaced after capsizing and were able to hold on to their boat; Pushan and Souradeep elected to swim for shore but failed to make it. The rowers were unaccompanied by a launch and unaware that the shell’s internal flotation should have been able to keep them afloat.
Accident Summary
Devanshh Chakraborty, one of the surviving crew members, gave a vivid account of the accident.
“We had only been taught to row,” he said. “Had we known our boat would not sink, my friends could have survived by simply holding on to it,” Devanshh told The Telegraph Online. Only after his friends had drowned did he learn that his rowing shell had been designed to support the rowers in the event of such an accident.
By Devanshh’s account “the sky was clear when we began our practice (around 5pm). We had completed one lap and were on the verge of completing the second when the sky suddenly grew dark and gusty winds started blowing…
“The next moment, the boat had overturned and thrown all of us in the water. I tried to swim but one of my feet was still caught in the rowing shoe attached to the boat. I managed to reach my feet but failed to untie the lace. There was no time to think. I pulled with all my strength and freed my foot.
“By the time I came up, my three friends and the cox had already surfaced. The cox told us to grab the boat’s sides and flip it back to its original position. The four of us did. But we didn’t climb back into the boat since it was filled with water and we were afraid it would sink…”
“The cox told us to hold on to the boat or swim to the shore if we could… That was the last time I saw Souradeep and Pushan.”
“I had never before faced a situation like this,” he continued. “We had no clue how to react if the boat capsized. It was only later that I learnt our boat was unsinkable. Had I known this earlier, I would never have left the boat and tried to swim.”
Following the accident Tamal Saha reported on Twitter that the club’s motorized launches were not on the lake after having been recently ticketed for violating the lake’s ban on motorized launches.
On Tuesday, May 24th, The Lake Club, Calcutta Rowing Club (CRC), Bengal Rowing Club (BRC) and West Bengal Rowing Association — in consultation with the Kolkata Police and Kolkata Metropolitan Development Association — all agreed to suspend rowing on the lake until better safety mechanisms can be determined and set in place.
Safety Issues
On the basis of what has been reported in the first week after this accident, several key points emerge for discussion: 1) Safety Training, 2) Squalls, 3) Absence of a Coaching Launch, 4) Accident Response, 5) PFDs
Safety Training
Devanshh Chakraborty’s account — assuming it is accurate — identifies three glaring failures in safety training: the lack of capsize drills or discussions, ignorance of the boat’s flotation, and the cox’s failure to insist that rowers hold onto the boat. In his words, “We had only been taught to row… We had no clue how to react if the boat capsized.” Many rowers can probably relate to these statements, or feel, as many administrators do, that watching a “safety video” suffices for safety training. It does not. If the cox suggested that holding onto the boat or swimming for shore were equally viable options, it belies a profound lack of training on the part of the cox. The same is true of ignorance about the boat’s inherent flotation.
Squalls
There is a common attitude among coaches, administrators, and rowers, that weather conditions can be confidently predicted two hours in advance. That might be true in some instances. In many instances, it is not. Squalls — fast moving storms over bodies of water — have always been somewhat unpredictable and racing shells designed for flat water, low wind conditions are dangerously unstable in squalls. No safety guidelines or rules can define precisely whether or not is safe to row if there is a thirty-, fifty-, or seventy-five percent chance of dangerous conditions. When rowers are on open bodies of water they often cannot outrun (i.e., outrow) fast moving storms. There are many accounts of rowing shells starting out on calm water under clear skies and then capsizing under heavy winds and high seas — even when they see the storms forming in advance.
Coaches, rowers, and administrators should also recognize that squalls are becoming more common and increasing in intensity as a consequence of global warming. There is no serious scientific debate on this matter.
Absence of a Coaching Launch
The absence of a coaching launch accompanying the rowers in this case raises a difficult issue for rowing clubs and club administrators. In an effort to protect lakes from the environmental degradation of gas-powered motors and a desperate effort to stave off the accelerating effects of climate change, new regulations are now imposing restrictions on lakes such as Rabindra Sabodor, an artificial lake approximately seventy-three acres in surface area in a populated recreational area. It was reported that the Lake Club had been ticketed the previous week for using a gas-powered boat on the lake and, consequently, was not accompanying the rowers at the time of this accident.
Within the past two years a number of new, electric outboard motors have been introduced onto the market, some of which are suitable for coaching launches. They are more expensive than gas-powered outboards and have less power and range. There are also now electric catamarans coming on the market designed specifically for rowing teams.
Accident Response
All rowing clubs and teams should spend time reviewing procedures for responding to boats that swamp, capsize, or rowers who are ejected by crabs or otherwise injured while rowing. Watching a video on this subject can be helpful, but it is not adequate in the absence of serious discussions with rowers and practice on the part of coaches.
PFDs
Personal Flotation Devices (PFDs) should always be an option for inexperienced rowers and underage minors, as well as experts rowing on cold water. There are many modern PFDs suitable for rowing. They are not bulky, should not chafe, do not interfere with rowing, and need not cause overheating. In the absence of an accompanying launch, PFDs provide a level of protection otherwise unavailable to rowers.
© 2022 RowSafeUSA.Org /revised 28 May 2022