• 02
  • September
    2010

Pennsylvania lawmakers met in late August to discuss potential changes to the way in which boaters charged with DUI can be prosecuted and punished under state law. Also present were waterways enforcement officials and the Clinton County District Attorney, Mike Salisbury.

The impetus for the meeting was a fatal boating accident that occurred over a year ago on the Susquehanna River. In the accident, a man operating his boat while drunk crashed into another boat, killing a 12-year-old passenger.

The man had four previous DUI convictions, but none of these were considered in this case as they had all happened while he was driving a car. Salisbury believes that there is a serious discrepancy here; one that needs to be amended.

For boaters charged with DUI, such a change could have major implications.

To that end, Pennsylvania lawmakers have drafted two bills. The first gets rid of legal differentiation between DUI convictions on the road and ones on the water. The second makes the penalties for drunk boating much tougher, moving them into line with penalties for drunk driving in a motor vehicle.

Additional legislation would increase the level of offense for drunk drivers in fatal boating accidents from a third-degree felony to a second-degree felony. A fourth bill would require that fatal boating accidents, in which alcohol was a factor, result in "consecutive mandatory minimum sentences."

This bill would also raise the mandatory minimum sentence by five years if the individual killed was under 18 years old.

While these changes are designed to make the law clearer, they could very well do the opposite. It is important, as these matters are being debated, that lawmakers take into account other circumstances which may come into play in such cases.

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