Keough boat bill looks to sink loophole

BOISE — A bill by Sen. Shawn Keough that seeks to remodel the Idaho Safe Boating Act in regard to the term “grossly negligent operation,” gained introductory approval Monday from a Senate committee.

Keough, R-Sandpoint, said a recent court decision in the First District magistrate division found an Idaho code section under that Safe Boating Act to be a violation of the U.S. Constitution.

A bill description stated that Idaho Code 67-7016 was found, “void for vagueness and therefore violates the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.”

Keough cited two Bonner County cases of recent years as examples of why lawmakers should update and clarify what is viewed fuzziness in the current safe boating law in Idaho.

“In both cases a boat driver ran their boat into another boat,” she said.  “In one case, it was a sailboat that was anchored, and nobody was on board, but the occupants of the boat that ran into the sailboat ended up being injured, as were both boats.”

In that case, negligence was reduced to “several different charges,” Keough said.

Then there was the other case.

“A boater ran into a parked boat, on Priest Lake,” Keough said.

 “Again, quite a bit of damage to both boats. People were airlifted off the lake.

“And, that case was dismissed.”

She added: “And, so, the effort here is to try to come up with a definition of grossly negligent operation of a boat, in an instance like this, whereby, people can be held accountable for their actions.”

The Senate Judiciary and Rules Committee on Monday gave introductory approval to Keough’s legislation.

Reps. George Eskridge, R-Dover, and Eric Anderson, R-Priest Lake, are co-sponsors of the new bill.