Re: [Paddlewise] Pfds and new rules.

On 10/15/06, Dave Kruger <kdruger_at_pacifier.com> wrote:
>
>
> I'm also sad for the Moms and Dads who may have lost a kid because the kid
> drowned, whose life might have been saved by wearing a PFD.  And for the
> drowned kid.


In Washington State any child under 12 is required to be wearing an
appropriate (not just *any*) PFD when the vessel is underway and whenever
the child is on the open deck of any vessel under 19 feet. Not that
unreasonable in my opinion.

It is a fact of life that some parents pay little attention to the safety of
their own children and I don't quibble with laws that effectively deal with
this. But there must be a law of "inescapable escalation" in these
regulations that says if a requirement for the innocent is good then a
requirement for everyone must be even better.

In Washington State the original seatbelt laws were passed with the
understanding that the police couldn't use that as PC (probable cause) for a
vehicle stop. Within a few years they changed that too. My 17-yr-old son was
actually jailed for not wearing his seat belt. Officer's discretion. His car
was left along a highway with no one in attendance and by the time we got to
it there was damage.

We have so many laws that are "for our own good" that I fear greatly that
our free country hasn't really been free for a good many years. One small
step at a time we're all going to be boiled frogs.

I just became a grandpa and kids are important to me but I am not willing to
live in a police state just to keep every single person - child or adult -
totally and completely safe.


Craig Jungers
Still Radical in Royal City, WA
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