[Federal Register Volume 66, Number 206 (Wednesday, October 24, 2001)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Page 53754]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 01-26814]
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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
Coast Guard
33 CFR Part 173
[USCG-1999-6094]
RIN 2115-AF87
Raising the Threshold of Property Damage for Reports of Accidents
Involving Recreational Vessels
AGENCY: Coast Guard, DOT.
ACTION: Notice of reopening of comment period.
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SUMMARY: The Coast Guard is reopening the period for public comment on
a partial suspension of rule with request for comments published on
June 26, 2001. The chairman of a subcommittee of the National
Association of State Boating Law Administrators (NASBLA) asked that we
reopen the comment period so his subcommittee could discuss the rule at
their meeting in October 2001 and submit a comment to the docket. We
are reopening the period for 30 days so the subcommittee and other
interested persons can submit comments.
DATES: Comments must reach the docket on or before November 23, 2001.
ADDRESSES: Identify your comments and related material by the docket
number for this rulemaking [USCG-1999-6094]. To make sure they do not
enter the docket more than once, please submit them by only one of the
following means:
(1) By mail to the Docket Management Facility, U.S. Department of
Transportation, room PL-401, 400 Seventh Street SW., Washington, DC
20590-0001.
(2) By hand-delivery to room PL-401 on the Plaza level of the
Nassif Building, 400 Seventh Street SW., Washington, DC, between 9 a.m.
and 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, except Federal holidays. The
telephone number is 202-366-9329.
(3) By fax to the Docket Management Facility at 202-493-2251.
(4) Electronically through the Internet site for the Docket
Management System at http://dms.dot.gov.
The Docket Management Facility maintains the public docket for this
rulemaking. Comments and material received from the public, as well as
documents mentioned in this preamble as being available in the docket,
will become part of this docket and will be available for inspection or
copying at room PL-401 on the Plaza level of the Nassif Building, at
the address listed above between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., Monday through
Friday, except Federal holidays. You may also find this docket on the
Internet at http://dms.dot.gov. You may obtain a copy of this partial
suspension of final rule by calling the Infoline of the U.S. Coast
Guard at 1-800-368-5647, or read it on the Internet, at the Web site
for the Office of Boating Safety, at http://www.uscgboating.org or at
http://dms.dot.gov.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For questions on this notice, contact
Bruce Schmidt, Project Manager, Office of Boating Safety, U.S. Coast
Guard, by telephone at 202-267-0955 or by e-mail at
[email protected]. For questions on viewing or submitting
material to the docket, call Dorothy Beard, Chief, Dockets, Department
of Transportation, telephone 202-366-5149.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Regulatory History
The early regulatory history for this rulemaking appears in the
preamble of the final rule entitled ``Raising the Threshold of Property
Damage for Reports of Accidents Involving Recreational Vessels'' [66 FR
21671 (May 1, 2001)].
Reason for Partial Suspension of Effective Date
After we issued the final rule on May 1, 2001, a State boating-law
administrator expressed concern about a provision in the rule requiring
reports of all collisions involving two or more vessels resulting
exclusively in damage to property, regardless of the amount of such
damage.
Currently, few States have statutory authority to require reports
of multi-vessel accidents that result neither in personal injury nor in
any damage to property. Further, States' legislative calendars
precluded compliance by the published effective date, July 2, 2001. We
note that States' legislation would be unnecessary if our provision for
reporting collisions of two or more vessels included a threshold of
$500, since all States do now maintain such a threshold. Because of the
concern raised about the impact of our provision on States'
legislation, the Coast Guard delayed implementation of that provision,
in 33 CFR 173.55(a)(3), requiring a report whenever ``* * * a collision
occurs involving two or more vessels, regardless of the amount of
damage to property; * * *'', and provided a 90-day comment period on
the provision.
Reason for Reopening the Comment Period
In response to the notice of partial suspension of effective date,
we received 28 comments, including a request from the Chairman of the
Boating Accident Investigation Reporting and Analysis Committee
(BAIRAC) of NASBLA to extend the comment period beyond the meeting of
BAIRAC in October 2001. We are reopening the comment period until
November 23, 2001 to let BAIRAC discuss the suspended provision at that
meeting and submit a comment to the docket. We are also reopening it to
anyone else who would like to submit a comment, but please do not re-
submit comments already in the docket.
Request for Comments
We encourage you to participate in this rulemaking by submitting
your comments to the Docket Management Facility as specified in
ADDRESSES. Please submit comments and materials related only to the
provision in 33 CFR 173.55(a)(3), requiring a report whenever ``* * * a
collision occurs involving two or more vessels, regardless of the
amount of damage to property; * * *''. We will consider comments
received during this reopened comment period and may change 33 CFR
173.55(a)(3) in response to the comments.
Dated: October 18, 2001.
Kenneth T. Venuto,
Rear Admiral, U.S. Coast Guard, Acting Assistant Commandant for
Operations.
[FR Doc. 01-26814 Filed 10-23-01; 8:45 am]
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