TO: NBF Executive Committee
FROM: DAVID KUTZ
SUBJECT: NASBLA MEETING REPORT
DATE: 23 September 2005
The 46rd NASBLA Conference was held September 16-21, 2005 in Portland, Oregon. The below are deemed subjects of interest for NBF for the sessions I attended between September 19-21.
HOMELAND SECURITY PANEL
Cdr. Mike Callaghan from USCG HQ in Washington DC spoke about the Small Vessel Threat Analysis. They determined there is a potential for serious problems considering that 16 million boats are registered in the U.S. Their study concluded an attack on a national asset would be easy. They have established a 200-yard security zone around national assets.
The Coast Guard recognizes it needs to bridge the information gap between local authorities and the USCG. The locals know the profiles of boaters better than USCG, which is greatly helpful. They are combining forces and developing a plan to make sure all agencies are working together with Federal, State, and Local Information Sharing. In some cases the local marine authorities are moving their offices within a Coast Guard command center just to tighten up the communications.
The Districts are clearly seeing more of a need to work together in this post 9/11 environment and making strides to work with both local and international authorities. The PIERS system of sharing information is a new and good example with e-mail distribution district and nationwide.
BOATING SAFETY PROGRAMS AND ACCIDENT DATA
Statistics can strongly influence the need of boating safety measures and personnel. The importance of these numbers cannot be overlooked. For instance where statistics determined speed causes a major percentage of boating accidents, speed limits were implemented and accidents reduced. In NY State PWC accidents dropped from 27% to 11% after mandatory PWC education was implemented.
In Ohio they had a focus on recognizing the importance of capacity plates on small boats when it was determined overloading was a significant problem in their accident data. The State created public awareness PSA's and modified boater ed courses to focus more on the capacity plates.
The need to track accident data and statistics is important to find out where we are, where we are going, and what needs to change.
The three states that contain the Colorado River boating center used accident data to create a tri state task force to reduce boating accidents. Statistics showed that 80% of the boaters on the Colorado are from California, mainly the L.A. area. This information enabled them to create PSA's and target boaters using the L.A. media, radio, billboards, etc. The cause of the Colorado accidents was determined to be 61% from alcohol and 52% unsafe speed, or both. So the Tri State group focused on these causes in their PSA's. They also host a big Safety Event in early May with media kits, pfd exchanges, etc. to capture the attention of the boaters in the area.
Bruce Schmidt from the Office of Boating Safety spoke about how to use accident information and data and how it measures the effectiveness of safety programs and laws. Risk Based Decision-Making will be a major factor in determining these programs. In 2004 there were 676 boating deaths, the lowest since 1960. This is grim, but good news especially since the amount of boaters has risen considerably since 1960. From data it can be clearly determined that 7 out of 10 deaths were caused by drowning, 9 out of 10 were not wearing a PFD, 1/2 of the fatalities occurred in boats under 16 ft and 3/4 of them in boats under 25 ft. Some people are convinced that mandatory PFD wear for operators of open boats under a specified length (i.e. 23-ft.) would clearly reduce boating fatalities.
JEFF HOEDT - Chief of Office of Boating Safety
Jeff reiterated the outcome of the 2004 data and the 674 fatalities were lowest year on record. We have almost 13 million registered boats. There were 4904 reported boating accidents and 3363 injuries in 2004.
Jeff stressed the importance of the states to get their accident data turned over to them by early November.
The RBS (Recreational Boating Safety) mission is to minimize loss of life, personal injury, property damage, and environmental impact associated with recreational boats.
Currently the PFD wear rate is only 22%. In 2004, 484 out of the 676 boating deaths were due to drowning. 431 of these 484 fatalities were not wearing a PFD. The Coast Guard wants improvement. The goal is to get the wear rate up to 44%.
There was a recommendation to the Coast Guard for mandatory PFD wear for vessels 21 ft. and under. The Coast Guard said lets try voluntary efforts first, (even though the national wear rate has not improved since 1998).
NBSAC proposes the goals for the Coast Guard RBS program and strategic planning panel. The results and goals accepted will be based on "Risk Based Decision Making" (RBDM). What are the highest risks? Types of accidents, frequency, and effectiveness.
The Wallop Breaux Account has received a $30 million increase for boating with the new 2005 funding in HR-3. The Office of Management and Budget will want to know what progress is being made with this new money. The OMB will be holding the states accountable for their funding and will want to see progress.
Any organization who submits a grant application must have measured goals. The project needs to be connected to a National RBS Program's goals and objectives, and create measures. There will be more money for non-profit RBS grants and state grants with the new Wallop Breaux RBS funding.
When Jeff put the map up, it showed that California, Florida, and Texas had the highest number of fatal boating accidents (over 40/year). Washington, Oregon, and Alaska is the highest region of fatalities per 100,000 boaters.
The Coast Guard continues to study and watch closely States with newly phased in mandatory boater education. They have hard data that there is a FAST REDUCTION in States that have implemented mandatory boater education. They are also encouraged by Canada's results in their national boater education program.
The NTSB is reconsidering its "Most Wanted" list. Will boating safety still be on it? To be determined….
NASBLA BOATER SAFETY COURSE APPROVALS
Reviewed the standard and NASBLA requirements of the references, rules, federal code, publications, and accident statistics needed to prepare an approved course and testing. All this is available on the NASBLA.ORG website.
HOW TO AVOID A POLITICAL TRAIN WRECK
The Georgia BLA presented an interesting discussion on how their Agency and State was caught flatfooted when their Legislature stripped them of their power to inspect vessels. He stressed the importance of not falling into their same pitfalls, namely not recognizing the political climate in the state, public trends toward recreation and urbanization of their citizens. It is important to cultivate a broad realm of political friends for your programs and maintain a positive and wide range of public perception.
Respectfully submitted,
David Kutz
NBF Excom
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