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About us:
Since our formation in early 2000,
the Coalition of Parents and Families for Personal Watercraft Safety
has moved to bring attention to the need for increased caution while
operating Personal Watercraft, the need for boater education by
Personal Watercraft operators, as well as all other boaters, and the
need for design changes to address the Human Factor in PWC
operation.
Three focus areas were mentioned in our first mission
statement:
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Increased safety through public awareness and
education concerning the nature of Personal Watercraft as
vehicles with significant horsepower and without off-throttle
steering or braking capacity.
In the first year we put up
an estimated 500 posters around lakes in the North Texas,
Central Texas and Southern Oklahoma area with the cooperation of
law enforcement agencies. Posters are available upon request
through our webmaster. This year?s theme is that 76% of all PWC
accidents are collisions?70% with other vessels, and 6% with
fixed objects. Posters have been successfully used as warning
handbills by law enforcement personnel patrolling lake areas.
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Increased safety through legislation requiring
certification of all Personal Watercraft Operators, and limits
of youth operation to none below the age of 16.
The Coalition
continues to stress the importance of Boater Education. We have
worked to pass boater education packages in two states this past
year, Texas and Nevada. We were pleased to see the Nevada
package pass, but unfortunately Texas, which frequently has the
dubious position of first or second in boating accident
fatalities in the nation, did not pass their mandatory boater
education package. We were told that rental agencies raised a
last-minute concern that mandatory education would interfere
with their businesses. States which have passed mandatory
packages, such as Florida, have not experienced any decline in
rental businesses.
A number of states have passed
mandatory Boater Education acts, but we find frequently the
admonition by the American Academy of Pediatrics that children
under 16 should not operate PWC is ignored, and a qualifier is
put in allowing children who have completed Boater Education
classes to operate them. Some states allow children as young as
12 to operate PWC! Imagine allowing your 12-year-old to
drive a car without brakes at 55 mph!
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Increased safety through timely manufacturer
compliance with NTSB recommendations for adequate warning,
labeling, padding, helmet use, and off-throttle steering and
braking capacity development.
Recent changes to PWC design
reflect the Industry?s response to pressure from the NTSB and the
Coast Guard to solve the problem of off-throttle steering loss.
There is still no standard despite the NTSB report, which is now
4 years old. With respect to writing a standard for PWC
collision avoidance, we would rather see the standard take more
time, or have the Coast Guard proceed to rulemaking, than to
write a loose standard just for the sake of having one.
The Coast Guard has re-opened the once-tabled question of
helmets for Personal Watercraft Operators with the advent of new
helmet technologies. Labels have been developed for newer
models, which, in our opinion, are lengthy, and sometimes vague.
One criticism we have of the label is that it states ?keep hair
away from intake grate?. The Coalition is aware of at least
two deaths that occurred when individuals fell from the back of
a moving PWC and were sucked under to drown beneath the craft,
caught by their hair. It is our opinion that long hair should be
kept beneath a cap or helmet that will prevent accidental
ingestion of hair into the intake. Although the mental picture
of this scenario is gruesome, the warning needs to be more
truthful than ?keep hair away.?
Older models have not been recalled for
re-labeling or for additional padding, nor do we know of any
plans to retro-fit them with a fin or rudder to provide
off-power or off-throttle steering. We would like to see some
consideration of these possibilities, considering the number of
older and used PWC.
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