MRAA responds to USCG statement
OAK PARK, Ill. – Marine Retailers Association of America President Phil Keeter has written the Commandant of the United States Coast Guard, questioning the validity of a recent USCG press release, which he felt painted an unnecessarily grim picture of boating safety in the United States.
In the Dec. 27 letter, Keeter told Admiral Thomas H. Collins that he was “amazed at the dismal picture of safety” the USCG gave in its release.
“Your press release clearly did not tell the whole story,” Keeter wrote. “2003 was one of the safest years, if not the safest, on record for recreational boating. We believe the Coast Guard should recognize the contributions of industry in improving the boating safety record and should honor the tens of thousands of volunteers who work hard to make recreational boating the safest form of recreation. Our safety record is truly outstanding and recreational boating has never been safer.”
In its release, the USCG reported on its recently released statistics, which indicated that 86 percent of all boaters who drowned in 2003 were not wearing life jackets.
“Boaters need to be responsible for the safety of themselves, their passengers and other boaters,” Rear Adm. J.W. Underwood, U.S. Coast Guard director for operations policy, said in the release. “This means not only having life jackets on board but requiring your passengers to wear them all the time. You never know when an accident will happen that will prevent you from reaching for and putting on for that lifejacket.”
Keeter told Collins that while the MRAA supports the goal of improving boating safety, its membership opposes mandatory PFD use for adults and asked why the USCG did not mention that recreational boating fatalities were down 6 percent from the previous year, part of a 12-year downward trend, until near the end of its press release.
“With no public outcry for mandatory adult PFD wear, with no Congressional inquiries, and with a truly outstanding and improving safety record, our members wonder why the Coast Guard paints such a dismal picture of our safety record,” Keeter wrote.
- For more of the latest news, click here.