[Airwaves]

Originally posted by Evenstar:
A number of the supporters of HB-162 have addressed those statistics many times. I've brought up the fact several times that not all boating accidents make it into the USGC reports,

Right, only the ones with over 2-thousand dollars or personal injuries. 2-Thousand dollars damage on a boat isn't much damage.

Orginally posted by Evenstar:
plus the argument that smaller boats have been using Winni less in recent years.

I didn't bring this quote up in the past because it's just foolish. If you follow that line of thinking then the accident rate is dropping because small boats are not on the water! That would be the same as saying smaller boats are the cause of accidents on Winni, do away with them and the problem is solved.

Original quote by Evenstar:
There are other possible reasons for a lower number of REPORTED accidents in 2004. For one thing, it was one of the coldest and wettest summer in recent years, which likely has some impact.

Weather plays a factor in boat traffic, and if the figures for 2004 were an anomaly I might consider it, however the trend for the past 6 years that stats are available show an annual decrease in accidents.

There was also a posting on another thread (and I am paraphrasing) that said boater education has no impact on safety! I found that one of the funniest posts I had recently read (no, it was not written by Evenstar). So now it's not Speed kills, it's Education kills!

Original post by Evenstar:
Overall, NH doesn't have a very good boating safety record compared with our neighboring states, which is something that the opponents to HB-162 are ignoring.

NH's boating record has improved every year, and as I have posted prior, 35 accidents in 2004 involving a fleet of registered boats of over 101K (not including transient boats) is a pretty darn good record!

So, the Laconia paper mentioned the Senate committee was going to take this up today and vote on whether to recommend or not recommend it to the senate, any idea what happened?