The bill is named after Andrew Free, a nine-year-old from Broken Arrow who died of carbon monoxide poison after a day of cruising on Lake Eufaula in 2020.
Rep. Dean Davis (R-Broken Arrow), who authored House Bill 2010, or “Andy’s Law,” mentioned Free’s loss of life hit near house.
“I have nieces that are boaters, and they wake board, and we sit on the boat,” Davis mentioned. “And so many of my friends and family just never had the realization that this was a danger.”
Gasoline-powered boat engines and turbines release carbon monoxide. The colorless, odorless fuel can construct up in the boat’s cabin and round open-air swim decks at the again of the boat, particularly on crafts which were idling or shifting at gradual speeds.
A study commissioned by the U.S. Coast Guard recognized greater than 800 circumstances of carbon monoxide poisoning on boats between 1981 and 2008. Two of the nation’s earliest recorded circumstances of boat-related carbon monoxide poisoning occurred on Oklahoma’s Keystone Lake in 1984, leading to the loss of life of a twelve-year-old. In 2006, at least 20 people inhaled carbon monoxide whereas sleeping on a houseboat on Lake Texhoma; all survived after receiving medical remedy.
The Public Safety Committee mentioned the availability of carbon monoxide detectors for boats, however the bill doesn’t require them.
“I just want to give a warning,” Davis mentioned. “If you have a label that can give acknowledgment of this danger, people can see it every day and just look for the symptoms.”
Those symptoms can embrace nausea, dizziness, weak point and confusion.
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