The Tragedy Of Florida Teenagers (EPIRB)

298 Words2 Pages
Last July, two Florida teenagers, Perry Cohen and Austin Stephanos, set out for a day of boating from the Jupiter Inlet and were never heard from again. Days of searching and hoping turned up nothing. What happened to the teens and their 19-foot, single-engine boat remains a mystery. Only one thing is known for certain – searchers would have had a better chance of finding the boys if their boat had been equipped with an emergency indicator radio beacon (EPIRB) that could have signaled their location. In response to the tragedy, Florida lawmakers looked for a way to provide an extra incentive to encourage boat operators to equip their vessels with EPIRB’s and other safety features. The resulting legislation is HB 427, which, beginning on