SC could soon require new safety course for young boaters

Following a steady rise in boating accidents and fatalities in South Carolina, lawmakers looking to beef up boater safety are one step away from sending a bill to the governor’s desk.

The S.C. House on Tuesday passed a Senate proposal that would require anyone under the age of 16 to receive boater education training before operating any type of watercraft in the state. The requirement would also apply to anyone under 16 renting a boat or jet ski, lawmakers said.

With 8,000 miles of rivers, 460,000 acres of lakes and 3,000 miles of coastline, the Palmetto State has an abundance of water resources with more than 360,000 recreational motorboats and personal watercraft registered with the state, according to the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources — the agency that would be responsible for regulating boater education.

“Here’s the biggest mistake people make when they try to drive a boat: They try to drive it like a car, and you can’t drive it like a car,” said state Rep. Chris Hart, D-Richland, who says he had to learn the essentials of boating on his own, having never taken a boater education course.

Without boater education, “no one teaches you how to brake a boat,” Hart said Tuesday. “No one teaches you the stern from the bow or who has the right-of-way on the water. I wish someone would have taught me that before I drove a boat for the first time.”

Statistics from SCDNR show a general rise in boating-related accidents and fatalities in the state over the last five years. There were 22 recreational boating fatalities in the state in 2022, up from 15 deaths in 2018. There also were a total of 170 boating accidents in 2022, up from 142 in 2018.

The bill, which received widespread bipartisan support, passed 110-8 Tuesday and will now go back to the Senate to decide whether to approve three House amendments, including one that would allow anyone under 16 with a fishing or hunting license to operate a boat without a boating certificate, provided they are using the boat to travel to or from a hunting or fishing location or are in the process of hunting or fishing while in the boat.

Other amendments to the bill would free boaters from having to carry their boater safety certificate with them while operating their watercraft. And another changed the definition of “engine” to include an electric motor.

Randall Smith, founder and chairman of Boating Safety South Carolina — an advocacy group that promotes boater safety issues — says he and his wife have been pushing for boater safety for the past 25 years after they lost their 11-year-old son in a boating accident on Lake Murray in 1997.

Smith, who visited the State House on Tuesday to watch debate on the bill, said while he’s in favor of the amendment modifying the definition of engine, he does not support the other two.

If the Senate signs off on the changes, the bill would only await Gov. Henry McMaster’s signature before becoming law.

“Because of the overwhelming support in both the House and Senate, I am confident a compromise will be reached, and this legislation will become law,” Smith said in an email to supporters of his organization.

State Rep. Justin Bamberg, D-Bamberg, said Tuesday that while he was happy to back the safety measure, support from his Republican colleagues seemed hypocritical.

“This is the same body that passed a law that said that at 18 years old you can get a handgun and you can carry it with no training anywhere you want, whatsoever doing away with the permit process,” Bamberg said, referring to a constitutional carry proposal that passed the House earlier this year. “We’re passing bills out of the House and the Senate that are doing away with training for things that are far more deadly than boat accidents or jet ski accidents.”

Boater education courses, in some cases, are free and available in-person, online and through certain apps, such as iLearnToBoat.

Under the bill, anyone born after July 1, 2007, would be required to receive boater safety certificates, which pushes the age requirement up by one year, every year, meaning beginning July 1, 2023, the requirement would apply to anyone under 17.

A supporter of the measure, state Rep. Chris Wooten, R-Lexington, said while he recognizes the bill will do little in preventing boating accidents involving alcohol, he said the majority of accidents don’t involve booze.

“You can’t fix drunks on the lake, we realize that,” Wooten said Tuesday. There were “170 accidents last year, and in only three were the contributing factor or the determining factor alcohol.”

Thirty-eight states currently have a boater education requirement, including neighboring Georgia and North Carolina, according to Wooten.

“Every state that has a boater education has less fatalities per 1,000 boaters,” Wooten said.