SAVING LIVES ON THE WATER: Gov. McMaster signs SC Boating Safety and Education Bill into law

LEXINGTON, SC (WOLO) — If there’s one thing South Carolinians can agree on, it’s that we like being out on the water.

Recreational boating has a $6.5 billion economic impact each year in the Palmetto State, but last year saw 170 boating accidents according to DNR statistics.

“South Carolina now has more than 361 thousand registered boats. This represents a nearly 21 thousand vessel increase in the past year,” said SC DNR director Robert Boyles.

While boating has always been popular in South Carolina, it also carries an inherent risk. Boating Safety SC chairman Randall Smith lost his son to a boating accident back in 1997. Since then, he has been working on laws that help make the state’s waterways safer.

“Now, the penalties for BUI and DUI are equal. They should have been all along,” Smith said. “Today, South Carolina joins 46 other states that require boater education. I know this law will help save lives.”

Thursday afternoon at the Columbia Sailing Club, Governor Henry McMaster signed the South Carolina Boating Safety and Education Bill. It requires anyone born after July 1st 2007 to take an online or in-person boating safety course before taking a vessel out on the water. 

One proponent of this bill is Morgan Kiser. She was with her father and mother when they were hit by a boater on Lake Murray.

“She lost her leg. I took my dress off and tied it around her leg as a tourniquet,” Kiser remembers. “She almost died in front of me. My dad did die in front of me. I’m glad this bill passed because I don’t want anyone else to have to suffer. Statistics show that this bill does save lives.”

The state’s DNR director says that the safety course will help address some of the common causes of boating accidents.

“Failure to maintain proper lookout, operator inattention and operation inexperience. These are all things we can address through boater education,” Boyles said.

The bill’s author is Senator Chip Campsen from Charleston. He says that while he grew up knowing how to drive a boat, many in the state do not have that knowledge.

“If you have to take a course and get a license to operate a car where lights and signs tell you exactly what to do, you certainly need to do that when it comes to a boat,” Sen. Campsen said. “You have to have that in your head.” 

Boaters found not in compliance with the new law will be a fine between 50 and 300 dollars.