Death on Dragonboat Day

They say it’s all fun and games till someone gets hurt. Unfortunately, at this year’s dragon boat races in Stanley, I witnessed first-hand the true meaning of this adage. Amidst the racing, the revelry, the drumming, and the drunken antics came a stupid and tragic accident.

After a few days of black rain, landslides and fallen trees, the weather auspiciously (or so we thought) cleared for race day. I wasn’t paddling this year so I had free license to roam the party boats lining the racecourse. Ferries and sampans waited at the shore to shuttle people out to the boats. I started my day at Zone B where I boarded the Time-Warner boat simply because one of my friends works for that company. Adjacent to that was the BNP Paribas luxury junk yacht where a righteous party was going on. On the other side, there were 2 JP Morgan boats lined up next to each other. My friend and I spotted someone we knew at the 2nd JP Morgan boat so we decided we’d hop over there for a visit.

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It’s common practice to hop from one boat to another but, the gap between our boat and the JP Morgan boat was wide and the railings of both boats were quite high. It was going to be challenging and somewhat dangerous to cross from boat to boat this way. A guy from the JP boat started to pull the boats closer together so we could get on, but their boat bitch started yelling at us saying they were full and we couldn’t get on. She handed us some conciliatory beer pitchers instead.

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Undeterred, we decided to hire a small sampan to take us one boat down so we could board  properly and safely. Once onboard, we climbed the ladder to get to the upper deck and I remarked how slippery the floors of the junk were due to the spillage of beer and other liquids. I was treading very lightly so I wouldn’t fall and make an ass of myself.

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People were migrating at will from one boat to the other and the DJs had the party-goers dancing with some crowd-pleasing hip-hop tunes. Incidentally, I remarked how young and alternative the crowd looked for a banker’s boat. About 50 percent of the people on the boat had had tattoos.

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Anyway, everyone was having a grand old time chatting, flirting, drinking beer, and laughing when a bunch of people went to the boat next door for a hula-hoop contest. I wasn’t sure what the winner won, but I think the loser was supposed to get his head shaved. At one point, a big crowd gathered around the adjoining boat to watch one guy getting all his hair razored. I noticed a few people crossing over the top deck to get from boat to boat and I thought to myself- gee, that’s dangerous since the decks are so slippery and people have been drinking.

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I stopped looking, but suddenly there was a big ‘Thud’ and a splash followed by a huge commotion. People started screaming “Someone’s fallen in the water!! Who is it?? Help! Someone call an ambulance! Call for help!!”  I didn’t actually see the guy fall in, but his burgundy and white trucker cap was still floating ominously on the surface. My girlfriend, who saw some of it happen, was freaking out. I asked her who it was but all she knew was the guy was really tall.

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Random people started jumping in the water after the fallen man but the water was dark and murky and it was impossible to see anything. “Goggles!! Goggles!! Does anyone have goggles?? Move the boats apart!! Turn the motors off- It’s dangerous!! Someone call an ambulance please!”

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A communal panic ensued and people’s shouts became more frantic. 5 minutes passed and the guy still hadn’t surfaced. People were still swimming around in vain looking for him in water with zero visibility. The water looked so dirty. There was a lot of garbage floating within and one guy seemed to be surrounded by an oily veil of gas from the boat’s engine.

“Who was it??” People were yelling. “It was Eric Tutera” someone said. Then everyone starting yelling “Eric!!! Eric can you hear us?? ERIC!!!! ERIC!!!!” “Someone please call Eric’s cell phone!” Everyone wanted to do something to help- but in the confusion, not much could really be done.

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10 minutes passed and all the boats in the vicinity had moved off to the side exposing a potential area where the body could resurface. A few guys sped off in a powerboat to get the police to come and help, but short of having a team of rescue divers on call, not much could have been done.

Police boats surrounded the area, and a helicopter flew overhead. Some guys that were dressed like the fire brigade in helmets and fireproof jackets came to the scene of the accident on an orange zodiac. People were pointing in the water but what were the firemen going to do? Dive in with their jackets and plastic helmets? A feeling of uselessness and helplessness pervaded the air.

The clock kept ticking. About 20-30 minutes had passed. The crowd had lost hope that poor Eric could be rescued. Most likely he hit his head on the way down and was already unconscious when he hit the water. In that state, he probably sank directly to the bottom.

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Meanwhile the event continued- the guns at the starting line continued to blast at the start of each race, people were still cheering the paddlers on and happy unsuspecting spectators zipped by on speedboats until they were warned by police not to cross the area. People on the surrounding boats continued to drink, dance and take in the beauty of the clouds framed by the afternoon sun.

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The people on our boat were shell-shocked. One guy who had dived in to try to save Eric  was sitting at the foot of the boat with his head in his hands. A blonde girl, who possibly knew Eric personally, could no longer hold back her tears. She burst out crying and her friend took her in his arms to try to comfort her. There were group hugs and a piece of paper was being circulated to get the names and numbers of the people who witnessed the accident. There was nothing more that could be done. I heard a guy on the orange Zodiac say that divers were coming to search the area.

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They wanted everyone who didn’t actually see the accident to get off the boat so my friend and I guiltily left. Why is it when you witness someone die, that you sometimes feel like it’s your fault? We didn’t even know Eric, nor did we even meet him, but it was so very tragic. It was a really silly accident. Everyone was just drinking and having a laugh. Who knew that we’d be faced with the heaviness of our own mortality on such a festive day?

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There was a big colorful rundown of the races in the paper. They even talked about how lucky we were that the weather had cleared. However the accident garnered little more than a one line footnote. ‘An expat man in his 30’s suffered a blow to the head and fell missing in the water. The police are still searching for his body.’

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My girlfriend called me crying at 1am saying that she couldn’t sleep and she kept replaying the incident in her head. I tried to calm her down and assured her that there was nothing she could have done. At least he died quickly and painlessly.

 If anything can be learned from this incident, it’s two things:

1. Don’t take stupid unnecessary risks- specially if your judgement has been impaired by any amount of alcohol.

2. Live and love everyday like it may be your last because we’re all going to die someday it's just a question of when.

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Eric- if your have left us- may you Rest in Peace.