By Kathianne Boniello
City Councilman Tony Avella (D-Bayside) is calling on the state Legislature to enact changes in boating laws after last month’s fatal boat collision on Little Neck Bay.
The July 11 boat crash, in which a Little Neck teen and a Long Island man were killed and at least two others were seriously injured, rocked the normally quiet boating community in northeast Queens’ Little Neck Bay, which has a public dock at the Bayside Marina and a private dock in Douglas Manor.
“It certainly raised my awareness to the overall issue and the desperate need to do something,” Avella said of boating safety laws and restrictions.
Since boating laws do not fall under the City Council’s jurisdiction, Avella is in the process of drafting a resolution on the issue to send to the state Legislature.
The resolution, which Avella hopes to introduce in the next available Council session, will ask the Legislature to change the laws and require all boat operators to obtain a boating safety certificate.
Current laws require only operators of personal water craft, such as jet skis, to get a boating safety certificate, as well as children between 10 and 18 years old who want to pilot a boat without an adult, Avella said. Children between 10 and 18 can operate a boat without a safety certificate only if they are with an adult.
“We’re talking about things that have just as much power as a car,” Avella said.
He also is pushing for laws requiring children 10 to 15 years old to be accompanied at all times while piloting a boat by a person 16 or older who has a boating safety certificate. Under the altered laws, a child of the same age who wants to operate personal watercraft would have to be with a person who is 18 or older who has a boating safety certificate.
U.S. Coast Guard statistics cited by Avella show 84 percent of all boating fatalities involved boat operators who had no safety training.
The Little Neck Bay boat crash, in which Douglas Manor’s Robert Arnold, 18, was initially accused of boating while intoxicated before charges were dropped for lack of evidence, was the first fatal accident on the bay in years. State statistics show there was only one accident on the bay last year.
Avella said a possible compromise may use a New Jersey law as a model under which children 13 to 15 could operate a boat alone if the vessel has little horsepower or if the boat has little power and the child has a boating safety certificate.
John Kondogianis, 36, of Elmont, and George Lawrence, 17, were killed in the Little Neck Bay accident, while Kondogianis wife, Marisa Rodgers, 29, was critically injured.
Friends and acquaintances of Arnold said the teen was a conscientious and experienced boater who was responsible on the water.
The Queens district attorney’s office said this week that the accident was still under investigation and no decision had been reached on whether or not Arnold would face charges of criminally negligent homicide in the case.
Reach reporter Kathianne Boniello by e-mail at Timesledgr@aol.com or call 229-0300, Ext. 146.
