Required or Not - Take a Boating Safety Course
New 2007 boating statistics show Florida leads the nation in boating fatalities – 85 percent of which involved operators without boating safety education. Only a few weeks before the data was published, the Florida legislature denied a plan to require boating safety education for Florida’s boaters.
Many states are adopting boating safety education requirements, like the state of Washington, so why not Florida – the state with one of the largest boating populations in the nation?
What do you think? Should states require boaters to pass a boating safety course before they are allowed to operate a boat? If you have taken a boaters safety class, tell us about your experience and what motivated you learn more about boating safety.
Source: St. Petersburg Times
Photo © U.S. Coast Guard
Comments
Yes, I believe we should be able to pass a boaters safety class. Too many times we have been out on the water and people in other boats take such great chances with their lives and boats. One of our friends left the United States in his sailboat and ended up on the rocks and broke the keel away from the hull. He had no GPS unit, no water depth charts…The sailboat had to be towed back to this marina and he flew home. I could go and on…