After frigid water rescue, marina guard becomes a ‘brother’
Dec 19 2012 in Currents, People by Deborah Bach
Security guard Bill Byers, left, is presented with an award from Northwest Protective Service president and CEO Randy Neely. Photo courtesy of Elliott Bay Marina
When Doug Hicks sits down to Christmas dinner at his sister’s house next week, he’ll know that if it wasn’t for a man named Bill Byers, he wouldn’t be alive to celebrate.
Byers, the night security guard at Elliott Bay Marina, rescued Hicks after he fell into the water two weeks ago while trying to step aboard his sailboat at night. Hicks, 67, is believed to have been in the water for more than half an hour and was slipping into unconsciousness when Byers came to his aid.
“Bill didn’t assist in saving my life,” Hicks said yesterday. “Bill saved my life.”
Byers was recognized for his actions with an award from his employer, Seattle-based Northwest Protective Service. Company president and CEO Randy Neely came to the marina on a recent morning and presented Byers with a letter of recognition.
Byers had just started his shift at 11:30 p.m. on Monday, Dec. 3, when Hicks stopped by the office to say hello. The two chatted for a few minutes, then Hicks, who runs the marina’s fuel dock and lives aboard his sailboat, headed home to J dock.
Soon after, Byers started out for his first patrol of the evening. He likes to switch up the route, and that night he set out from the marina office in the opposite direction of J dock. He headed along the pathway running perpendicular to the marina’s docks, looped through the parking lot and was making his way toward the office when he thought he heard a call for help drifting across the black, frigid waters of the marina.
Byers froze in the drizzly night, straining to hear. The gusty wind that had howled through the marina earlier in the evening had died down. The voice called out again, and this time it was unmistakable. Someone was in trouble.
The calls seemed to be coming from the general direction of J dock. Knowing that a couple of marina employees live on the dock, Byers ran down it, looking between boats as he went. Then he heard the voice again, this time calling his name. Not many marina employees knew his name, he thought. It must be Doug.
Hicks had been about to climb onto the sturdy step hanging over the side of his boat, but he misstepped and hurtled sideways, hitting his head before landing in the water between his boat and the dock.
Hicks blacked out momentarily, coming to with his head above the surface. He fought to get himself out, trying to get a footing under the dock or pull himself up on one of his mooring lines. The swim ladder on his boat was secured in the upright position, rendering it useless.
Hicks realized if he didn’t get help, he would soon die. He started calling for help. Disoriented, his sense of time disappeared. Perhaps from shock, he didn’t feel the cold. At some point he started feeling warmer, a symptom of hypothermia setting in.
Hicks started to relax. This isn’t so bad, he thought. I’ll just backstroke to shore. Just as he began to surrender, Hicks saw Byers’ feet. Then Byers grabbed his arm, and the edges of reality blurred.
Byers called 911, struggling to explain to the dispatcher what a gatehouse was and which end of the marina they were at. Hicks was slipping in and out of consciousness. Panicked, Byers told the dispatcher the situation was dire. Minutes could mean Hicks’ life. She stayed on the phone while he waited for help to arrive. It seemed like an eternity.
“I was keeping his head out of the water. All I could do at that point is wait,” Byers said. “I was worried he wasn’t going to make it. It was pretty close, I think.”
Police officers arrived shortly, followed by paramedics. Hicks was loaded onto a stretcher and rushed to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle. He remembers nothing of being pulled out of the water, and little of the ambulance ride and his arrival at the hospital. After being treated for hypothermia, he was released about six hours later. His ribs were inflamed and painful from his efforts to pull himself out of the water but otherwise, Hicks was fine.
Doug Hicks
The swim ladder on Hicks’ Catalina 30, Swagman, is now unlatched so that if he falls in, he can easily pull it down and get himself out. Hicks, who was previously the marina’s harbormaster, believes the onus is on boat owners to install swim ladders on their vessels as a safety measure.
“It’s your boat,” he said. “You’re fully responsible for it.”
Hicks realizes how fortunate he is. If the wind had been gusting loudly that night, if Byers was wearing ear muffs or listening to an iPod, if he was the type to speed through his rounds and not take the time to listen, well, Hicks wouldn’t be sitting in the marina office drinking coffee on a brisk morning a week before Christmas.
“Bill really stops and looks and listens at each gate,” Hicks said. “I’ve seen him on his rounds before. He’s diligent about what he does.”
The two men have chatted frequently since Byers started working at the marina almost two and a half years ago. Looking at all the boats and hearing how much Hicks loves sailing sparked an interest in Byers. He started asking questions and on Hicks’ suggestion, enrolled in boating classes.
“Doug’s real knowledgeable about boating,” he said. “I enjoyed those talks.”
The pair have run into each other less since Hicks stopped working in the office and took over management of the marina’s fuel dock. But the close call has created a bond that’s hard to characterize. How do you put into words your feelings about a colleague-turned-friend who saved your life?
“For my new brother Bill,” Hicks said, “I would do anything.”
Billy A Byers said on January 11, 2013
I wanted to say thanks Deborah Bach, for the nice article.
Bill Byers
EBM Night Security.
Deborah Bach said on January 11, 2013
Bill, thank you for talking with me and sharing your story. But most importantly, thank you for coming to Doug’s rescue. You are truly a hero.
Sean Munger said on December 28, 2012
I have to agree with John Lund, in retrospect, a responsibility does lie with both a boat owner and the marina operators, it’s most important to have a working system that can save lives, so the question isn’t who’s responsible, but why isn’t there a requirement to have a working plan in place?
Any information on this subject would be helpful and informative. It is most important that we find a solution to this on going, potentially fatal flaw in our boating community, it is the responsibility of ALL those involved in the boating community to find an answer to this problem. The time is now, we can change the odds in our favor.
SV Beulah Mae
John Lund said on December 28, 2012
Too often we boaters point our fingers elswhere and say it’s his/their responsibility. We are responsible for our own safety. A boarding ladder on each boat that we can deploy from the water could be used anytime, while in a marina, any marina, at an anchorage, during an overboard while underway, many different occasions. I was involved in one incident where the lady in the water, with a lifejacket on, would not let anyone help her from the water, so I rowed her while hanging onto the transom of my dinghy, to a port ladder. A friend helped a couple out of the cold winter water, near their boat, with barely any time left. The water here varies from 41d in the winter to 68d in the summer, all very cold and the closest ladder out of the water is the best ladder out of the water. Searching for a ladder to swim to in a state confused by water temperature is not a realistic solution. I feel that it should be a requirement of all boats in a marina to be fitted with a ladder, deployable from the water for use by anyone in the water. This should be a requirement for all marina operators to include right along with discharge requirements, proper power connections etc..
Bob Hale said on December 24, 2012
A few years ago a friend suddenly ended up in the water in his boathouse one winter night. If his boat hadn’t been equipped with a swim ladder that he deployed, he would have died.
That did it for us. At our haulout a few weeks later we installed a swim ladder on the corner of our swim step (or rather, Seaview Boatyard did the install). Two summers ago I used that ladder when my clumsy efforts to get in our new inflatable kayak went awry and I ended up in the water. My life jacket kept me nicely afloat and let me pull out and position the swim ladder.
Happily, the summertime water in Garden Bay (Pender Harbour) is fairly warm and I had no hypothermia issues.
The swim ladder wasn’t cheap and installation wasn’t cheap. Funerals aren’t cheap either.
-Bob Hale
Dan Hollingsworth said on December 22, 2012
Great job, Bill! Very proud!!! You are God’s hand to the people around you.
Shawn munger said on December 20, 2012
A great follow up story to a very happy ending! There is one thing that still haunts me although…. this is the statement that “that the onus is on boat owners to install swim ladders on their vessels as a safety measure”, while an intriguing idea, it is not very realistic in my humble opinion.
The reasoning for this opinion is two-fold, first in the Northwest, unlike the warmer waters latitudes, the water temp
of Puget Sound is on the average of 45 degrees, most boaters don’t swim here, so the cost of buying and installing a device that really has a “snowballs chance in Haydes” of being of used would be the reason for its failure to be installed.
Secondly, you would encounter a lot of resistance getting anything legal on the books to enforce this idea should it ever come to a liability issue involving a drowning. The list of cons is even longer!
I prefer to focus on the positive, and the most reasonable answer, requiring marinas to install a device to be able to rescue ones self from the water back onto the dock unassisted, to be placed in as many areas as needed to be useful for this purpose.
It would be much easier for positive legal backing for this, the cost could easily be absorbed by the marina businesses, it would be simple to enforce by simply checking for the devices, the issue of liability would be clear… Most importantly… The devices would simply save many lives. After all isn’t that what it’s all about?
I think Bill and Doug would agree on this! Merry Christmas to all, may we all pray for peace in the New Year!
SV Beulah Mae