Speed Limit test zones dead in the water!

[bbarrell]

was speed that caused any of those accidents....which is was not. I believe the accident reconstruction from the death a few years back put the 'high speed craft' at a whopping 27mph....not to mention he was intoxicated AND hit a boat that had no lights on at night. We are all saddened by that accident but it's not grounds for a speed limit. This is the exact behavior I'm referring to. I actually have the 2006 USCG stats (freshly published)....Here's some info...read em and weep:

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Unlike many states, the number of boat registration in NH is up slightly. Nationally, registrations have declined 2%.

two-thirds of all fatal boating accidents were drownings and nearly 90% of those were not wearing a PFD!

Alcohol was a contributing factor in 1 out of 5 accidents.

Skier mishap was the most common (22) boating accident in NH . . . collisions with fixed objects was next with 9 accidents. There were a grand total of 8 boat-to-boat collisons and according to the NH Marine Patrol, none of those 8 collisions involved a speed over 30 mph.

And interestingly, about 90% of the NH accidents involved boats under 25ft in length.

[Airwaves]

It it not speed these folks are trying to ban, it's boats capable of speed!

Islander wrote

NO STATISTICS? There was a fatality a few years ago involving high speed craft on Winnipesaukee. There was a fatality this summer involving high speed craft on Winnipesaukee. There was a double fatality in Maine involving high speed craft that could just as easily happened on Winnipesaukee.

Four people dead in the area involving high speed craft is all the statistics I need.

Note the wording HIGH SPEED CRAFT not accidents involved high speed because the accidents didn't involve speed over the limits being proposed!

Also note that the author had to go back several years to find an accident involving a HIGH SPEED CRAFT that involved alcohol, not speed, and had to point to an accident from another state where boater education is not required even to make the above statement!

CONCORD, this is a blatant attempt to outlaw an entire class of boat, and with it an entire class of people, from Lake Winnipesaukee.

As the data that the Marine Patrol was collecting will likely show, speed on Lake Winnipesaukee is NOT A PROBLEM, violation of the 150' rule IS!

To add to the discussion among your colleagues in Concord ask yourself and them, why did the folks who initially called for a speed limit REALLY throw down a roadblock to prevent two pilot speed limits on the lake?
Because they know that the data will show SPEED IS NOT A PROBLEM ON LAKE WINNIPESAUKEE!