POLL: Engine Ign Kill Safety Lanyard/Tether Use

[silverghost]

I thought I would start this Poll & discussion here on your use of Engine Ignition Kill Safety Lanyard/Tether on your Donzi .

Since while driving a Donzi 16' & 18', & other similar boats, you are really in reality sitting ON the boat rather than IN the boat because of the high center of gravity of the passenger seating areas, and low freeboard of the cockpit area~~~~ I just wondered how many Donzi owners actually use an engine safety ignition kill switch lanyard & tether ?

None of the many boats my family has ever owned in 50+ years of boating has ever had such an ignition safety kill lanyard/tether.
I do use an engine ignition kill lanyard while out on the SeaDoo PWC hooked directly to a D-ring on my PWC life jacket vest.

Three years ago Dad & I were out fishing in the Great Egg Harbor Bay just below the Ocean City Yacht Club.
Several teenagers employed by the club were out on the water in small Boston Whaler tenders setting-up red float bouys for the afternoon's sailboat race.
One kid was standing and racing the yacht club tender around the sailboat race route dropping off a bouy & anchor when he decided to make a sharp abrupt turn.
The teenager flew in one direction right off the tender while the boat continued at a rapid speed into the circle turn.
The boat continued to make several high speed circles when it suddenly hit
a boat wake and the outboard motor suddenly shifted to the center steering position and the boat was now heading straight through a group of boats that were drift fishing for flounder.
We were in one of about 12 other boats in that drift fishing fleet group.
The speeding tender zoomed past us by about 4 feet~~~We had no real time to react~~~start the boat~~~and try to get out of the way.
It narrowly missed all the other drifting boats as well but was now heading at a very high speed still driverless down the bay heading toward the Ocean City north point side of the Longport /Ocean City NJ toll bridge.
As it got close to the bridge another boat wake hit the boat and it turned sharply to starboard.
Seconds later it ran up on the beach at high speed, just before hitting the bridge, and scooted about 50 feet up onto the sand.
The outboard motor whipped violently up & back; and the prop was still spinning wildly when the Boston Whaler tender finally came to a sudden halt.
It was almost like seeing a chase scene out of a James Bond movie .
What a near miss~~~~
The results could have been tragic.
The Teenager was fished-out of the water uninjured .

This episode proved to Dad & I the value of having ,& actually using, a safety lanyard/tether engine ignition kill switch.

Do you have a similar story to tell ?

Did a safety lanyard/tether ever save you, or a family member ?

Did you ,or a family member ever fly out of your Donzi without a safety lanyard/tether engine ignition kill switch installed , or hooked-up.

Do you have & actually USE your safety tether/lanyard ?

Any opinions & stories greatly appreciated.

Thank's