I just started using this and wearing a PFD. Here�s the deal, I use a seat belt and I do it without even thinking twice because it has become a routine. So if I start doing the PFD and kill switch every time it too will become routine and I�ll be that much safer on the water. Boats are very dangerous. You never know when you might slip hit your head, get knocked out and fall into the drink. It just makes since to wear your PFD. I just started about six months ago and I plan to continue to do so. Several months back, my trolling motor rope snapped into just as I was pulling it up. Of course I went flying backwards with the rope handle in my hand, but I managed to fall on my butt right before the windshield, but almost went out into the drink. I mean you just never know what might happen. That is why it is called an accident.

No I agree, no PFD/kill switch is a dumb choice, I just got to get myself in the habit of wearing them. I was just wondering if they did pass it or not.

And to make the statement that a hotfoot is as good as a kill switch is also dumb. The boat may be at idle but the prop is still spinning and at idle if it hits you it will still change your life, if not end it.
I was ejected this spring, kill switch worked as advertised as did the PFD. But you will still have a moment of dis-orientation when you surface. If the boat is running,even at idle, your screwed - to put it bluntly. Not to mention the fact that you are going to have to try and get back into a moving boat which is easiest to enter at the back WHICH IS BY THE SPINNING PROP if you just depend on a hotfoot to stop your boat.

While having your boat slowly circling you as you try to catch your breath and decide which way to swim may sound good, it's not. I will be the guy shooting the video of the boat running over the guy in the water. I got in the middle of a circling boat once but it's not something I will ever do again.

If you dont wear a life jacket you put yourself at risk.

A run away boat with no driver puts everyone on the lake at risk.

Its just plain stupid and dangerous to run above idling speed with no kill switch.

I wear both, out of respect for my family and for others on the lake.

I always have a lanyard attached to the life jacket and its always worn on my boat when I go to start the motor. I am forgetful and started a tournament 25 plus years ago without using the lanyard and drove back to the tourney site and took myself out of the tournament.

Safety and tournament compliance are both the reasons I use one and its gotten so commonplace that I automatically hook it up before I start the motor. The motor won't start unless I hook it up. Both my daughter and I have life jackets with a lanyard so whoever drives the boat hooks up before the motor ever starts.

Did NOT pass.

http://www.legis.state.tx.us/BillLookup/History.aspx?LegSess=85R&Bill=HB1988

THE THREAD TITLE IS VERY MISLEADING...THERE IS NO "NEW KILL SWITCH LAW'. THERE IS NO "OLD KILL SWITCH LAW EITHER.

If the House approved bill had been also considered and passed by the senate and then signed by the governor becoming law, the kill switch being connected to the boater would have been required when motor was running, but only when the boat was also "underway".

Myself, I always kill the outboard if leaving the boat as I have had it slip out of neutral on its own during idling as I go to park or retrieve truck & trailer....thankfully the tie rope to the dock held.