How typical... one more opportunity for big gov to be our daddy.

Listen, everyone... regardless of which side of the aisle you align yourself
with, this has got to come down to personal liberty and responsibility.
This is in the same vein as helmet laws for motorcycles and seatbelt laws
for cars. Are they effective a saving lives? Absolutely. Is it a good
idea to use them? Without question. Should free citizens of this country
be forced into using them it they would otherwise choose not to? Certainly
not.

I have a 19 month old little girl. When she, her mother and I go out on my
little boat, she wears her PFD (as is the law) but her mother and I do not.
When I go out alone with my little girl, I put mine one BEFORE I deploy the
boat. They are decisions *I* make based on my personal judgment of the
situation.

The 750 boaters who died in '02 did so as a result of decisions they made
as individuals. Tragic, yes. However, if everytime someone dies were are
then likely to be compelled by government to relinquish yet another personal
choice then we cease to be a free people. Suggestions are great. Strongly
worded advice is wonderful. Just let me make the final choice, stupid or
not.

J


"Gould 0738" wrote in message
...
Heads up.

The National Transportation Safety Board will be holding a public forum to
discuss
the merits of requiring all boaters to wear (not just carry) PFD.

**************************
Washington, D. C. -The National Transportation Safety Board will hold a
public
forum to discuss mandatory wear of personal flotation devices (PFD) on
recreational boats, NTSB Chairman Ellen Engleman Conners has announced.
The
one-day forum will begin at 9:00 am on August 25, 2004 at the NTSB Academy
in
Ashburn, VA.

The purpose of the forum is to gather all available data, and to promote
an
open and informative discussion of policy issues related to mandatory PFD
use.
The Safety Board has a long history of working to improve recreational
boating
safety. It has been on the Board's "Most Wanted" list of transportation
safety
improvements since its inception in 1990.

"The Board has made a solid commitment to advance recreational boating
safety
by all means available to our agency," said Chairman Engleman Conners. "A
public forum will be an excellent mechanism to bring together agencies and
organizations to identify solutions that will improve public safety in
recreational boating."

Coast Guard statistics show that 750 boaters died in 2002. Eighty-five
percent
of those who drowned were not wearing PFDs, even though in many cases,
PFDs
were aboard. These statistics have been consistent from year to year and
Coast
Guard statistics show that approximately 450 lives could be saved each
year if
the victims wore PFDs. The Safety Board wants to build on this information
and
other data available to evaluate the safety benefits of mandatory wearing
of
PFDs on recreational boating.

Currently, most States require PFD wear for children and for personal
watercraft operators. No State requires PFD wear for all occupants. Yet
six
years of observational studies by the Coast Guard show that less than 5%
of
adults in open boats wear PFDs.

Some of the issues discussed at the forum will be:

The impact of federal and/or state legislation mandating wearing of PFDs
on
recreational boats
Various vessels and type of operation that should be included in or
exempted
from mandatory wear rules
New PFD technology
Alternatives to mandatory wear rules

Registration details for the forum and directions to the Academy may be
found
on the Board's website at www.ntsb.gov.

NTSB Media Contact: Keith Holloway, (202) 314-6100