Quote:
Originally Posted by Major
Unfortunately, as with many other issues in life, we have a vocal minority who is making a loud stink about go fast boats. There is absolutely no data that supports that a speed limit makes our lake any safer. Those of us who have boated for a long time, and have owned fast (and in some cases very fast) boats, know that a person doing 40 mph in one situation can create a far more dangerous situation than a person doing 90 mph in another situation. Speed has almost nothing to do with safety. The best and safest boaters I know have owned fast boats.
I guess a lot of this comes down to common sense. Fifty years ago, a car manual showed the owner how to change the transmission. Now that same safety manual has prohibitions against drinking battery acid. We have people in Concord who have never owned a boat making decisions based on what feels good in the moment. We have people in Concord who are fearful that their constituents will drink the battery acid. The rest of us are caught in the cross fire.
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I think you are wrong:
A 5 mph increase in the maximum speed limit was associated with an 8 percent increase in the fatality rate on interstates and freeways.
https://www.iihs.org/news/detail/spe...-over-25-years Physics, probability, and statistics all support this. Even our own Marine Patrol agrees with this.
And as far as a vocal minority I find it interesting that 700 emails were received by Concord reps with only a handful in favor of HB 448. And 23 speaking out against the bill, just two in favor. All 18 reps, half Democrat, half Republican opposed HB 448. Where was the outpouring of support from the other side?
And yes, we hear how the owners of fast boats are the best and safest boaters. Clearly the kayaker hit by the Monterey would disagree. As would the swimmer hit by a boat at 65 MPH. As would Mr. Hartman, killed by Mr. Littlefield. Ditto the Blizzard accident.
And a drunk boater at 65 MPH is far more dangerous than one at 35 MPH.