Dianne Feinstein has proposed sweeping boat safety legislation in the wake of the Conception fire that killed 34 people. The legislation would include a requirement for small passenger vessels to have at least two escape exits.
last month that the Conception was one of about 325 small passenger vessels built before 1996 and given special exemptions from safety standards that the Coast Guard imposed on new vessels, some of which required larger escape hatches and illuminated exit signs.officials said they would reconsider some of the rejected safety recommendations.In September, a fire broke out on the Conception during a weekend diving excursion in the Channel Islands,.
A preliminary NTSB investigation found that the Conception had violated a requirement that it have a roving watch during the night, saying the five crew members who survived awoke to discover the flames. The agency also has raised concerns about the functionality of the two exits in the area where passengers slept.disaster could take 18 months to complete
. Agents from the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are trying to determine what sparked the blaze. “The Conception boat fire was a tragedy that could have been prevented had stronger safety measures been in place. We can’t allow this to happen again,” Feinstein said in a statement. “We must ensure that small passenger vessels have the right safety measures in place to prevent disasters at sea.”One goal of the legislation is to better protect boats that the Coast Guard didn’t require to follow newer safety rules.
“It is abundantly clear that Congress must take immediate action to address safety hazards on older boats, which were grandfathered in and exempted from newer safety rules,” Brownley said in a statement.
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