Easley vetoes towing of big boats

Evoking images of boats colliding with school buses in early morning twilight, Gov. Mike Easley on Sunday vetoed a General Assembly measure that would have relaxed restrictions on hauling boats on North Carolina roads.

"I sincerely believe that this bill puts families at risk on the highways and would result in death or serious injury," the governor said in a news release.

House Bill 2167 would have allowed boats as wide as 9 1/2 feet to be towed without a permit along North Carolina roads with no time or date restrictions. Boat haulers would have been allowed to tow boats up to 10 feet wide during daylight hours.

In a page-long statement, Easley said that North Carolina's 60,000 miles of narrow two-lane roads couldn't accommodate boats that large and that narrow bridges would not allow boats more than 9 feet wide to pass each other safely.

Easley also said schoolchildren would be put at a greater risk if the bill had been made law.

"I am deeply concerned about 9 1/2-foot boats meeting a school bus," Easley wrote.

"The buses travel primarily on rural roads and often in the dark during the early morning and early evening hours."

Currently, permits are required for boat-trailer combinations more than 8 1/2 feet wide, and the boats cannot be towed on Sundays or holidays or at night.

Easley also had wanted the bill to reduce the permissible blood alcohol level for drivers towing large boats from .08 to .04.

The towing bill passed the House and Senate by large margins before being vetoed. Easley's office has publicly threatened to veto the bill since July.

One of the bill's sponsors, Sen. Clark Jenkins, a Tarboro Democrat, had an interest in a marina near Nag's Head when the bill passed through the Senate.

Jenkins and Sen. Marc Basnight, president pro tem of the Senate, have said that Jenkins' interest in the Broad Creek Fishing Center & Marina was not a conflict of interest.

Seth Effron, of Easley's office, said the governor's concerns were based on safety.

Easley urged the General Assembly to take up the measure again in January "when there is time to thoughtfully avoid the consequences of this bill."

Sunday's veto was Easley's ninth since November 2002.