ASSEMBLY ENDORSES SAFETY BILL.

Byline: Jennifer Kerr Associated Press 

Californians plying rivers and lakes in their personal watercraft would have to follow new safety rules under a bill passed Friday by the state Assembly.

The legislation, by Sen. Mike Thompson, D-Santa Rosa, affects several of the popular small vessels, including the well-known Jet Ski and WaveRunner.

``They're posing a danger to others on the waterways,'' said Assemblyman Jan Goldsmith, R-Poway.

The bill was approved on a vote of 43-17. It returns to the Senate for a vote on amendments added in the Assembly.

Gov. Pete Wilson vetoed a nearly identical bill last year, but it would have made violation of the new law a misdemeanor. Wilson said a misdemeanor might be too harsh in many cases. The new bill makes it an infraction.

Current law does not specifically mention personal watercraft, but does make it a misdemeanor to operate any vessel in a reckless or unsafe manner or under the influence of alcohol.

The bill would define ``personal watercraft'' and create guidelines for their safe operation. It would impose a $250 fine for operating such a craft at night, jumping the wake of other vessels within 100 feet, making a sharp turn to spray another vessel or person, or driving at an unsafe speed.

The Department of Boating and Waterways says there were 100,000 personal watercraft registered in the state in 1994 - 13 percent of all registered vessels.

Goldsmith said personal watercraft were involved in 36 percent of all boating accidents nationally, with 46 percent of injuries and 1 percent of fatalities.

But opponents said current law already covers reckless operation of all vessels and the bill goes too far in outlawing activities that are not necessarily unsafe.

Assemblyman Brett Granlund, R-Yucaipa, said many people like to cut back and forth across the wake of a boat and do so safely. And he said the bill discriminates against middle-class people who can afford personal watercraft but not larger vessels.

``It's anti-family. It's anti-people who can't afford large yachts,'' he said.

In June, the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency voted 10-4 to ban such small watercraft from Lake Tahoe beginning in June 1999. The bistate agency said the two-stroke engines discharge pollution into the water and air.

The city of Redding banned personal watercraft from the Sacramento River for five years. But the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in September 1995 that the ordinance was discriminatory because many boat ramps are federally funded and the city cannot deny access to any one group.