Representative Thomas Files Bills Requiring Boater Safety Cards

As expected, lake area Representative Doctor Lisa Thomas has introduced a couple of House bills aimed at boating safety identification cards across Missouri.

Thomas says it’s not a cure-all to eliminate injuries and fatalities on the lake but, at least, a step in the right direction.

“If legislation changed behavior, we wouldn’t have murder, we wouldn’t have fraud. We wouldn’t have all the things that are illegal. But laws do deter a significant number of people.”

House Bill 18-88 would require every person born after January 1, 1984, to possess a boating safety identification card showing successful passing of a satisfactory boating safety course before operating a vessel on all waters of the state.

The current law requires safety I-D cards for operating vessels just on the lakes across the state.

Also introduced by Thomas, House Bill 18-89 would mandate that all proceeds from fees collected for boating safety I-D cards be forwarded to the highway patrol’s Marine Division to be used only for statewide boating safety initiatives.

A push to get the bills passed into law is expected after some recent high-profile fatal boating accidents over the past few years at Lake of the Ozarks.