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Vol. 73, No. 6, June 2000 |
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Wisconsin's Boating Rules of the Road
The Inland Rules consist of five major subdivisions: Part
A - General24; Part B - Steering
and Sailing Rules (that is, Rules of the Road)25;
Part C - Lights and Shapes26; Part
D - Sound and Light Signals27; and
Part E - Exemptions.28 They are
applicable to all of the inland navigable waters of the United
States, which include Wisconsin's joint federal-state waters.
When compared to the detail and breadth of the Inland Rules,
the Wisconsin Rules of the Road have some congruencies, but are
substantially less complete and definitive than their federal
antecedents, and they lack the interpretive judicial precedents
of the federal rules.
 The
United States Coast Guard enforces the federal maritime laws
under the COLREGS and the Inland Rules.29
For sole-state waters, the Wisconsin DNR and local authorities
have the enforcement authority.30
The joint federal-state waters are under both federal and state
jurisdiction and enforcement.
Federal Precedents Apply to Wisconsin's Rules of the Road
Where state laws are patterned on federal laws - as is the
case with the Wisconsin Rules of the Road - then the federal
court decisions interpreting the Inland Rules and COLREGS are
persuasive authority in interpreting the Wisconsin boating laws.31 Consequently, the limited state rules
can be more fully fleshed out by using the federal rules and
their precedents.
Analysis of the Scenario
Using the Inland Rules, one can begin to analyze the scenario's
boat-pier accident on Lake Mendota. The collision with the dock
raises a liability issue for the dock owner and the boat operator
and passenger. Was the dock a hazard to navigation? Was the boat
operator negligent as to lookout, speed, management and control,
or good seamanship? Next, was the passenger negligent in any
way, for example, by standing up, not wearing a life jacket,
and so on? Once the collision occurred, was the operator negligent
in how the boat was handled in a man overboard situation or in
not wearing a life jacket himself?
The difficulty is that these questions cannot be answered
by Wisconsin's boating law or its Rules of the Road. A comparison
of the Inland and Wisconsin rules shows the general lack
of specificity of the state rules when compared to the federal,
making the latter an even more germane diagnostic tool. The sole
purpose of the navigational rules is for the safe navigation
of a vessel and to prevent collisions.32
There are numerous precedents to be found in the Inland Rules,
the COLREGS, or 12 Am. Jur. 2d, Boats and Boating. It
is necessary to explore the federal statutes and precedents in
order to determine the relevant facts to consider and to apportion
negligence, if any, in the Lake Mendota boating accident scenario.
By resorting to these non-Wisconsin sources and once having gleaned
the relevant facts, one can fully analyze and evaluate the legal
ramifications of the sole-state waters scenario.
The Lake Mendota operator did not observe the pier in time
to avoid it through normal boat handling practices, thereby raising
the first issue of lookout. This could fall within the purview
of Wisconsin's generic rule against operating a boat in a negligent
manner so as to endanger life or property.33
Inland Rule 5 specifically requires maintaining a proper lookout.34 A companion concern with lookout is whether
the operator's visibility was in any way restricted by weather
conditions or the sun's angle on the water.35
The boat's speed also may have been too fast for the prevailing
conditions.36
Consideration also must be given to the factor of having on
the boat and wearing the appropriate life jackets and whether
the pier was legal or a hazard to navigation. Even though these
are not Rules of the Road issues, they are factors in the legal
analysis of the accident. One also must consider the operator's
boat handling both before and after his wife fell overboard.37
The vast majority of national and Wisconsin boating accidents
are the result of human error rather than not having the required
equipment on board a boat, equipment failure, weather conditions,
or sea states.38 For this reason,
the Rules of the Road come into consideration when analyzing
many of the state's boating accidents.
Conclusion
A thorough familiarity with Wisconsin's Boating Rules of the
Road is essential to the process of determining fault. In spite
of the limited number of Wisconsin rules and their lack of judicial
interpretations, one still can completely analyze a boating accident
by using the federal rules and their expansive court interpretations.
Endnotes
1 For the purposes of this article,
the concept of the Rules of the Road is restricted solely to
traffic rules applicable to vessel steering and sailing. Outside
the scope of this article are the state and federal rules for
vessel navigational lights, sound and light signals, and required
safety equipment.
2 1997 Boating Programs Report,
Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, Bureau of Law Enforcement,
P4B-LE-314-98, pg. 4.
3 Wis. Stat. §
30.67.
4 Supra, note 2.
5 The state's waters are defined
as "any waters within the territorial limits of (the) state,
including the Wisconsin portion of the boundary waters."
Wis. Stat. §
30.50(14). The boundary waters are joint federal-state waters
and are comprised of the contiguous portions of lakes Michigan
and Superior, easterly of the center line of the St. Croix River
to its confluence with the Mississippi River and easterly of
the Mississippi River to the Illinois border. Wis.
Const., Art. II, § I. These joint waters are subject
to both the federal and the state laws.
6 Hine v. Trevor, 71 U.S.
(12 How.) 555 (1866).
7 33
U.S.C. § 57.
8 See Morse v. Home Ins. Co.,
30 Wis. 496, 505-07 [1872] (concerning the Fox and Wolf rivers).
See generally Gilmore and Black, The Law of Admiralty,
2nd Ed., p. 32-33.
9 33
U.S.C. § 2003(a), Wis. Stat. §
30.50(2).
10 Wis. Admin. Code NR
5, "Boat Regulations and Registration." It does
not, however, contain any operational rules of the road. DNR
pamphlet JG LE93 96, PUBL-LE-301 96 Rev is entitled, "Wisconsin
Boating Regulations."
11 Wis. Stat. §
30.65.
12 Wis. Stat. §
30.66.
13 Wis. Stat. §
30.68.
14 Safety Equipment. Running
lights, Wis. Stat. §
30.61; engine cutoff switch, Wis. Stat. §
30.62(3m); life jackets, Wis. Stat. §
30.65(3); fire extinguisher, Wis. Stat. §
30.62(4); backfire flame arresters, Wis. Stat. §
30.62(5); ventilators, Wis. Stat. §
30.62(6); battery cover, Wis. Stat. §
30.62(7).
15 Wis. Stat. §
30.68.
16 Wis. Stat. §
30.69.
17 Wis. Stat. §
30.68.
18 Wis. Stat. §
30.77.
19 For a general discussion of
boating law, see 12 Am. Jur. 2d Boats and Boating.
20 "Note. This section contains
certain well-established nautical traffic rules. All are consistent
with the federal pilot rules applicable to this part of the country,
though they are not as detailed or as complete as such federal
rules. The federal pilot rules applicable on the Mississippi
and its tributaries, for example, contain detailed provisions
as to whistle signals and their meaning and, upon proper signal
from a descending vessel, the ascending vessel may be required
to bear to the left in passing rather than to the right. This
illustrates the reason for the exception in sub (1) relative
to deviations from the rules of this section when necessary to
comply with federal rules. As far as the pleasure boater is concerned,
however, compliance with the single rules of this section should
suffice whether he is operating on the navigable waters of the
United States or on waters entirely under the jurisdiction of
the state of Wisconsin." Drafting Notes, pg. 27.
21 33 U.S.C. § 61-147, (1980),
33 U.S.C. § 151-232.2 (1980); 33 U.S.C. § 301-356 (1980),
and 33 U.S.C. § 241-295 (1980), respectively.
22 From 1981 on, the International
Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea (COLREGS) have
been contained in 33
U.S.C. § 1051 et seq., and the Inland Rules in
33
U.S.C. § 2001 et seq.
23 International-Inland Navigation
Rules, Commandant. Instruction M 16672-2; 23 August 1982,
pg. vi.
24 33 U.S.C. §§ 2001,
2002,
2003.
25 33
U.S.C. §§ 2004-2019.
26 33
U.S.C. §§ 2020-2031.
27 33
U.S.C. §§ 2032-2037.
28 33
U.S.C. § 2038.
29 14
U.S.C. § 2.
30 Wis. Stat. §§
30.74(3), 77.
31 State v. Judd, 147 Wis.
2d 398, 433 N.W. 2d 260 (Ct. App. 1988); State v. Evers,
163 Wis. 2d 725, 472 N.W. 2d 828.
32 Navigation Rules, Coast
Guard Institute, Department of Transportation, U.S. Coast Guard
(02/82), Pam. No. 006311, 33
U.S.C. § 2001(a); Wis. Stat. §
30.65.
33 Wis. Stat. §
30.68(2).
34 33
U.S.C. § 2005.
35 33
U.S.C. § 2018.
36 33
U.S.C. § 2006, Wis. Stat. §
30.66(1).
37 33
U.S.C. § 2002(a), Wis. Stat. §
30.66(1).
38 Boating Statistics 1997,
U.S. Department of Transportation United States Coast Guard,
COMDTPUB 16754.11; supra note 2.
Carlyle H. Whipple, U.W. 1963, maintains
Whipple Law Offices Ltd. in Madison. He has been an expert witness
in more than 40 boating accident cases.
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