Residents around Lake Murray are pushing for the state to enact a potential boating safety and education bill.

A hearing was held April 6 by the General Laws Subcommittee of the House Judiciary Committee considering the bill, which would require individuals born after July 1, 2007 to take a safety course to be able to operate a vessel by themselves. Anyone born before this date would be grandfathered in, and wouldn’t be required to take the course.

The current law requires anyone under the age of 16 to take a boater education course to operate a vessel 15 horsepower or greater by themselves; once a person turns 16, the course is no longer required.

The new bill applies to vessels 10 horsepower or greater and would not apply on private lakes or ponds. It would affect tourists and residents who wish to rent a vessel for the lake, but a short-course option would be available for such boaters, with the resulting certification being valid for 30 days.

Visitors who hold a certification from another state would not be required to take a course.

The House Judiciary Committee took a vote April 18 on the bill, moving it forward for debate beyond the committee.

Randall Smith, a Lexington resident and the founder and chair of Boating Safety South Carolina, said during the hearing that this is not a “feel good law” but is something that is truly needed.

“This bill is very much needed. The group I am here today ... represents several families that lost loved ones,” Smith said. “I will close by telling you not very often you have the opportunity to pass legislation that will in fact save lives.”

“Will it fix everything? No, no piece of legislation will, but it is a good opportunity,” he added.

Smith has been an ardent advocate for boating safety since 1997, when his 11-year-old son, Drew, was killed by an impaired boater. He is the author of 1999’s Boating Safety and Reform Act, often referred to as Drew’s Law, which still governs boating safety in the state.

Margaret Clarkson, a commodore for the Columbia Sailing Club, shared at the hearing that the club holds two to three Department of Natural Resources safety courses that are free to the public.

Multiple residents have been pushing for a bill that would make boating education required.

During the hearing, she said the club is concerned with the increasing number of boating accidents, as the group has a lot of children and members on the water.

“One of the things that we're really emphatic about is that power boaters need to understand the rules of the road,” Clarkson said, “and we feel like with a boating certificate, that that is just a level of understanding, that it's just a baseline of what they need to understand about what it's like to be on a body of water that everybody can share and we can do it safely.”