Plan to require courses to get a boat license fails

Know all the rules of the waterways?

You don't really need to as a bill that would require an online course for a boating license failed in the House on Thursday.

The bill, HB154, sponsored by Rep. Jim Dunnigan, R-Taylorsville, failed on a 28-42 vote.

Rep. Brad Dee, R-Washington Terrace, said he doesn't see why someone like him who has been driving a motorboat for 40 years should have to take a boating education course.

"I'm not real excited about taking another course," Dee said.

Dunnigan said experienced boat drivers cause the most accidents on Utah's waterways.

He said states without boater education have had fatality rates 3.2 times higher than states with programs for more than 20 years.