by Richard Simms
posted June 16, 2006
"Mike Bailey saved people's lives tonight," said Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency Officer Russell Vandergriff.
Mike Bailey is Vandergriff's fellow Marion County Officer. Bailey was patrolling Nickajack Lake Friday evening when he saw problems near the Shellmound Recreation Area.
Two people were on an inner tube being pulled by a boat. Somehow the two people in the boat were thrown out. Vandergriff said the boat continued on at full throttle, with two people on the tube behind. He said the boat began running in circles and the two people on the tube could not jump off for fear of being run over by the boat.
That's when Bailey appeared on the scene in his boat, first trying to use a rope to capture the runaway boat or at least foul its prop. That failed and the boat continued running in tighter and tighter circles, threatening to run over the people on the tube.
That's when Bailey knew he needed to take drastic action. He rammed the runaway boat with his own vessel, managing to reach over and shut the engine down.
Tim Hudson, a witness said, "he came flying in, siren going and never hesistated. Just right in there and made it happen."
There were no injuries and minimal damage to the runaway boat. However there was significant damage to Bailey's TWRA vessel. TWRA Boating Accident Investigator Glen Moates was called in from Nashville to oversee the case. Vandergriff, made it clear that his partner went above and beyond the call of duty, and chances are people are alive as a result of Mike Bailey being in the right place at the right time.
TWRA spokesman Dan Hicks says the runaway boat was equipped with a kill switch, however the occupants were not wearing it. A "kill switch" does just that -- they shut the engine off if the driver is knock down or thrown out of the boat.
Hicks said, "that's the lesson to be learned in this case. If the driver had been wearing the kill switch all of this could have been avoided."
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