ABYC to explore accident reduction strategies

ANNAPOLIS, Md. – The American Boat & Yacht Council has formed a new project technical committee called the Product Interface Committee to identify and address hazard mitigation strategies surrounding the human interface with boats and their associated equipment, ABYC said earlier this week.

“The interface committee will examine the relationship and interactions between people, the machine, the system and the environment, and then will determine if a standard is needed to mitigate risk and potential injury or death,” said John Adey, ABYC’s technical director. “If it is determined that there is a need for a standard, then the PTC will move forward and develop one.”

Speaking at the grand opening of ABYC’s new headquarters, Jeff Hoedt, chief of the USCG Office of Boating Safety remarked, “I would like to take this opportunity to publicly recognize and thank ABYC for its recent decision to form a new project technical committee, the Product Interface Committee. This committee will address problems that the Coast Guard has been focusing on, such as falls overboard, propeller injuries and other accidents caused by the interface of humans with machines. We look forward to working with this new committee and are optimistic that ABYC will find this endeavor to be as successful as all of its previous undertakings.”

ABYC said its Product Interface Committee is currently also seeking interested technical professionals to participate in the evaluation phase and potential development of this standard. The committee is specifically seeking participants with any of the following areas of expertise or capabilities: occupant protection, human factors design, accident recreation and investigation and hydrodynamics.

“The ABYC standards writing process is truly the most dynamic, interactive consensus-based standards development method being used within the marine industry today,” said Skip Burdon, ABYC president.

For further information, or to become a member of this committee, email John Adey, ABYC technical director at jadey@abycinc.org.

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