OCEAN CITY — There will not be new regulations regarding bow-riding this summer after proposed legislation filed late in the game stalled out as the General Assembly session expired this week.
In the wake of several serious boating accidents in the resort last summer, including a fatal propeller strike that claimed the life of a child in August, Ocean City’s representatives in Annapolis, including Senator Jim Mathias and Delegate Mary Beth Carozza, and Boat Act Advisory Committee in December, decided a regulatory remedy could be expedited rather than going the legislative route.
However, about halfway through the General Assembly session, for reasons unknown, the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) and Gov. Larry Hogan’s administration reversed course and decided adding new regulations regarding bow-riding would more appropriately be achieved through legislation.
Mathias and Carozza then submitted cross-filed bills, which did make it out of their respective Rules Committees, but the legislation never saw the light of day as the session expired at midnight on Monday.
“I’m deeply disappointed and I only ask our boat rental companies in Ocean City and throughout the state to please strongly advise customers on the dangers of bow-riding,” Mathias said. “Looking back on it analytically, I’m not sure why the department continues to shift gears on this because it’s a life-safety bill.”
The proposed legislation included language carefully defining bow-riding as the practice of individuals riding with legs dangling from the bow, the sides and the gunwales of vessels.
“There was language in the original version that drew some opposition from the sailing community, but we amended it and it was a well-crafted bill that addressed their concerns,” said Mathias. “They came to us with a desire to attack this issue with legislation so late in the session that we had to scramble to get it out of rules and over to Judicial Proceedings. They sent it back without any recommendation on the morning of the last day of the session and it never came to a vote.”
Carozza agreed some confusion of the intent of the bill in regards to sailing vessels and other concerns helped stall the late-filed legislation.
“I believe the proposed legislation, which was only to prohibit dangerous bow-riding on a motorized vessel in motion was misunderstood by the sailing community and some commercial watermen in that they were concerned it would affect sailing and their business,” she said.
Mathias said he would continue to pursue some remedy either by regulation or legislation in the future.
“Some legislation takes more than one session,” he said. “I started with this in August the day after the tragedy in Ocean City and unfortunately several months later we don’t have a law the Natural Resources Police can enforce out there this summer.”
In the meantime, Carozza said this week the DNR was planning a public outreach program to help get the word out about the dangers of bow-riding.
“When the legislation ran into resistance, Senator Mathias and I worked with DNR on changing the legislation from a specific bow-riding prohibition to directing DNR to conduct a public awareness and communications campaign on the dangers of bow-riding,” she said. “I am committed to working with all of our partners — local boat rental companies and restaurants, DNR Police, Senator Mathias, other elected officials and the general public — on an aggressive public awareness and education campaign for this season on the dangers of bow-riding and I believe our joint efforts will increase boat safety on our local waters and save lives.”
