[Federal Register Volume 62, Number 186 (Thursday, September 25, 1997)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 50280-50281]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 97-25373]


=======================================================================
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

Coast Guard

33 CFR Part 175

[CGD 97-059]


Recreational Boating Safety--Federal Requirements for Wearing 
Personal Flotation Devices

AGENCY: Coast Guard, DOT.

ACTION: Notice of request for comments.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

SUMMARY: The Coast Guard seeks comments from interested people, groups, 
and businesses about the need for, and alternatives to, Federal 
requirements or incentives for boaters to wear lifejackets. It will 
consider all comments, and consult with the National Boating Safety 
Advisory Council (NBSAC) in determining how best to reduce the number 
of boaters who drown.

DATES: Comments must reach the Coast Guard on or before February 2, 
1998.

ADDRESSES: You may mail comments to the Executive Secretary, Marine 
Safety Council (G-LRA, 3406) [CGD 97-059], U.S. Coast Guard 
Headquarters, 2100 Second Street SW, Washington, DC 20593-0001, or 
deliver them to room 3406 at the same address between 9:30 a.m. and 2 
p.m., Monday through Friday, except Federal holidays. The telephone 
number is 202-267-1477.
    The Executive Secretary maintains the public docket for this 
notice. Comments, and documents as indicated in this preamble, will 
become part of this docket and will be available for inspection or 
copying at room 3406, U.S. Coast Guard Headquarters, between 9:30 a.m. 
and 2 p.m., Monday through Friday, except Federal holidays.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Carlton Perry, Project Manager, Office of Boating Safety, Program 
Management Division, (202) 267-0979. You may obtain a copy of this 
notice by calling the U.S. Coast Guard Infoline at 1-800-368-5647, or 
read it on the Internet, at the Web Site for the Office of Boating 
Safety, at URL address www.uscgboating.org/.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

Background and Purpose

    Most people who die in recreational boating accidents drown; but 
most of the victims would have survived if they had worn lifejackets. 
Through its Recreational Boating Safety Program, the Coast Guard tries 
to reduce the number of recreational boating accidents. Although 
recreational use of water has caused fewer and fewer deaths over the 
last 20 years, boating accidents still cause more deaths than any other 
transportation related activity except use of roads. Boating accidents 
caused over 800 deaths in 1995, over 600 of them through drowning. 
Although 68 victims drowned while wearing lifejackets, 561 victims 
drowned while not wearing them. Nobody knows how many of the 561 
victims would have survived if they had worn lifejackets. There is 
evidence to suggest that factors other than drowning were the primary 
cause of death for most of the 68 victims who died wearing lifejackets. 
On the contrary, the

[[Page 50281]]

best way to minimize the number of deaths due to drowning is to 
maximize the number of boaters wearing lifejackets.
    Each year the Coast Guard sponsors a national boating safety 
campaign based on educational methods aimed at encouraging boaters to 
wear lifejackets. Realistically, such nonregulatory methods of 
modifying behavior will not by themselves be fully successful. However, 
the Coast Guard knows from data on boating accidents that State 
efforts, based on regulatory methods aimed at waterskiing and operation 
of personal watercraft, have been extremely successful.

Request for Comments

    The Coast Guard encourages you to submit comments about the need 
for, and alternatives to, Federal requirements or incentives for 
boaters to wear lifejackets (personal flotation devices, or PFDs). In 
particular, the Coast Guard encourages you to answer the specific 
questions about these requirements or incentives for wearing 
lifejackets, which it developed in consultation with members of NBSAC 
at the meeting in April 1997. The Coast Guard also solicits comments 
from all segments of the boating community, State boating safety 
authorities, NBSAC, the National Association of State Boating Law 
Administrators (NASBLA), and other interested people, groups, and 
businesses on the economic and other impacts of Federal requirements or 
incentives for wearing PFDs.
    Please include your name and address, identify this notice [CGD 97-
059], the specific question or area of concern to which each comment 
applies, and give the reason(s) for each comment. Please submit two 
copies of all comments and attachments in an unbound format, no larger 
than 8\1/2\ by 11 inches, to help us with copying and electronic 
filing. If you want us to acknowledge receipt of your comments, please 
enclose a stamped, self-addressed postcard or envelope.
    A. Boating Activity of Commenter.
    1. How much risk do you believe recreational boating involves?
    2. Do you agree with the following statement: If I fell overboard, 
I would feel just as safe if someone threw me a lifering or a buoyant 
cushion (Type IV PFD) as I would feel if I have been wearing a standard 
jacket style (Type, I, II, III, or V PFD)?
    3. Would a requirement for wearing a PFD likely affect your 
participation in recreational boating, and how would it affect it?
    4. Recreational boating varies widely depending on the interest of 
the individual boater. Individuals may own, rent or be a passenger on a 
boat; the boat may be manual, sail, or motor powered; the reason for 
boating may be for relaxation, transportation, competition, or 
excitement. Please tell us something about your recreational boating 
activity, including how often you go boating, what type of boating 
activities you do, and the type of water on which you go boating.
    5. Please tell us what type of PFD you carry when you go boating, 
whether or not you or other passengers wear a PFD, and the reason(s) 
for wearing or not wearing a PFD.
    B. Mandatory wearing of PFDs.
    1. Several States have imposed various requirements for wearing 
PFDs--by children, during waterskiing, aboard personal watercarft, and 
so on. What Federal requirements should the Coast Guard propose, if 
any, for wearing PFDs to ensure uniformity around the country? Should 
the Coast Guard propose Federal requirements only in those States with 
no requirements for children, while waterskiing, aboard a personal 
watercraft, or for any other appropriate category of boaters or boating 
activity?
    2. What Federal requirements for wearing PFDs should the Coast 
Guard propose, if any, based directly on higher fatality statistics in 
one or more categories of boaters, boating activities, or boating 
conditions?
    3. What Federal requirements for wearing PFDs should the Coast 
Guard propose, if any, based directly on higher fatality statistics 
involving one or more sizes or types of recreational vessels?
    4. What Federal requirements for wearing PFDs should the Coast 
Guard propose, if any, based directly on higher fatality statistics 
related to ages of the victims?
    5. A survey of State boating laws conducted in 1996 by NASBLA, 
under a Coast Guard grant, revealed that 25 States imposed requirements 
for the wearing of PFDs by children under various ages (from under 13, 
down to under 6). What Federal requirements should the Coast Guard 
propose, if any, specifying an age below which children must wear PFDs 
during any activities or under any conditions?
    6. Statistics for 1995 show that 476 (75%) of the 629 drowning 
victims were non-swimmers. What Federal requirements should the Coast 
Guard propose, if any, for non-swimmers to wear PFDs during any boating 
activities or under any boating conditions? How would boaters or law 
enforcement agencies determine who is a swimmer and who is a non-
swimmer?
    7. If you know of an instance where a person did not wear a PFD, 
but where that person or you later wished that person had worn one, 
please describe the instance.
    8. If you know of instances where safety makes wearing PFDs 
unacceptable or undesirable, please describe them.
    9. Are you aware of the intended uses and limitations of the 
various types (Type I, II, III, IV, V) of PFDs and kinds of PFD 
flotation (inherently buoyant, hybrid inflatable, fully inflatable) 
approved by the Coast Guard?
    10. What Federal requirements should the Coast Guard propose, if 
any, that boaters engaged in any particular activities wear PFDs under 
any conditions?
    11. Describe any other boating activities, conditions, or 
categories under which the Coast Guard should propose Federal 
requirements that all boaters, or specific groups of boaters, wear 
PFDs.
    C. General.
    1. What benefits (in terms of personal safety or in other terms) do 
you think would accrue from Federal requirements to wear PFDs? What 
costs (in terms of money, paperwork, inconvenience, or other terms) 
would accrue from such requirements? Would the costs outweigh the 
benefits?
    2. Please describe any nonregulatory ways to reduce the number of 
deaths by drowning at lower costs or with less burden than Federal 
requirements would entail.
    3. Is there any other information you feel may help the Coast Guard 
to reduce the number of deaths by drowning with the lowest costs to, or 
least burden on, the Coast Guard itself, the States, and, most of all, 
boaters?
    The Coast Guard will summarize all comments it receives during the 
comment period in response to this notice, place a copy of the summary 
in the public docket, and provide copies to the members of NBSAC for 
them to consider at their meeting in April, 1998. It will itself 
consider all relevant comments in the formulation of any regulatory and 
nonregulatory measures that may follow from this notice.

    Dated: September 18, 1997.
Ernest R. Riutta,
Rear Admiral, U.S. Coast Guard, Assistant Commandant for Operations.
[FR Doc. 97-25373 Filed 9-24-97; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4910-14-M