July/August 1975 Boating Magazine letter to the editor wonders why the Coast Guard Office of Boating Safety failed to mention kill switches in their response to a letter in May. The front page of the 1979 document is provided here. Interestingly, it is quite similar to a document prepared by USCG titled, “Casualties Preventable by the Use of an Engine Cut-Off Switch” included in the USCG-2009-0206 docket published as an Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking in June 2011. NBSAC 1979 Kill Switch Preventable Fatalities Report A presentation on boating fatalities that could be avoided by the use of kill switches, “Presentation of 19 Reported Boating Fatalities Preventable by a Kill Switch”, was given at the Spring 1979 NBSAC meeting. Coast Guard (USCG) National Boating Safety Advisory Council (NBSAC) Spring 1976 meeting. The issue of using kill switches as a means of stopping runaway boats was raised as a member item at U.S. This is Boatingʼs Newest Necessity”, assailing the features and benefits of Mercuryʼs Quicksilver Ignition Stop Switch. In August 1974, Popular Mechanics published an article titled, “This Switch Can Save Your Life: Now Required for Racing, and Tournament Fishing. Ray Scott, the well known bass tournament promoter, is said to have created a rule requiring all bass boats used in his tournaments to have a kill switch as a result of this accident. As part of a group of celebrities at the tournament, Fowlkes, a sportswriter, and a local bass fisherman were headed back for the weigh in, the steering cable broke, the boat ejected all three men, circled, and the propeller fatally struck Mr. In October 1973 Vernon Fowlkes, a supplier to the bass fishing and bass tournament industry from Tulsa Oklahoma, was killed during the 1973 Bassmaster Classic III tournament in South Carolina. Mars Safety Switch Company (advertising theirs in the Feb/Mar 1974 issue of American Bass Fisherman).ģ. Patent 3,889,089 filed in December 1973 with an October 1972 priority date, then issued in June 1975).Ģ. Tomlin (published in the May/June 1973 issue of Bassmaster magazine and U.S. Still others developing kill switches for recreational boats in this era and even earlier include:ġ. The article reports the kill switch is in a boat M&M will be showing at the Midwest Boat Travel Boat Sport and Travel Show which opens Friday at the fairgrounds. Should the boat lurch for any reason, like hitting a log or the steering fail, and the driver be thrown from the seat, the cord will pull and turn the engine off, killing the engine.” “Ernie McBride of M and M Marine, has designed a kill switch with a cord and alligator clip that attaches to the boat driver’s clothing. UPDATE – While Horton’s “Quick Kill” is widely viewed as the first recreational kill switch on the market, we came across an interesting article covering another switch a just little earlier. His switch is widely viewed as the first commercially available kill switch designed specifically for use in recreational boats, vs. Patent 3,786,892 on 22 January 1974, and entered productions with the “Quick Kill” kill switch in August 1974. George Horton, of Fort Worth Texas, applied for a patent on his “Quick Kill” recreational boat kill switch on 29 November 1972. Two young men on the Potomac River were ejected, the boat began to circle at full throttle, they dove repeatedly to try to escape to boat and propeller, one was eventually struck in the head and drowned, the other was struck in the shoulder.īy the early 1950ʼs boat kill switches of multiple designs were used in National Outboard Racing Association boats. The earliest example we have found was reported 14 July 1935 in the New York Times. The basic problem of unmanned boats going in circles (the Circle of Death) has been known a long time. Coast Guard is still considering regulations that would require boat builders to install kill switches (emergency engine cut-off switches) in all new recreational boats below a certain length and separately considering making their use mandatory, they have been on the market for over 30 years.
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