| Alabama boaters caught without licenses after the April 28, 1999
deadline will get only a citation rather than a ticket. Alabama Marine Police Director
Bill Garner said boaters will get a six-month reprieve thanks to a Department of
Conservation and Natural Resources policy issued Tuesday. Unlicensed
motorboaters and PWC operators will get written warnings until Oct. 28. "After that,
we will be enforcing the law," Garner said. "We'll be giving arrest citations,
which is very similar to a driving citation. Boaters will have to pay a minimum $100 fine,
plus court costs, which would be a total of $200 in most district courts."
After the April 28, 1999 deadline, Alabama boaters 12 and older
must have boating licenses if they plan to drive any motorized boat or water vessel on
state waterways.
In 1994, the Legislature passed a stringent package of boating
laws in response to the deaths of three girls, all under age 10, in several boating
accidents. But many boaters have waited until the end of the five-year grace period
allowed by the Legislature to get the licenses.
Garner and other state officials estimated that between 300,000
and 400,000 people might need boat licenses to operate about 256,592 state-registered
water vessels. Boaters younger than 40 on April 28, 1994, either had to pass a difficult
25 question boating test at Department of Public Safety offices or pass certified boating
courses to qualify for a license. Those 40 or older by that date were exempt.
Before the boating laws passed, boaters could operate vessels of
any horsepower with no training. Alabama Department of Public Safety officials could not
say Tuesday how many people have gotten licenses. But by the end of March, only 188,372
people had gotten licenses during the five-year grace period. More than a third of those
got their licenses only this year. |
