This series of posts discusses the duty of boat manufacturers, marine drive manufacturers, and other boating product manufacturers to monitor their products after sale to identify potential safety issues. Manufacturers are legally required to warn boaters (customers) of significant risks discovered after sale.

These posts are NOT professional legal advice. They were written to stimulate action and discussion on these topics.

A major resource for monitoring boat and marine drive accidents after sale is the U.S. Coast Guard Boating Accident Report Database (BARD).

This series of articles reveals as many as 32 to 45 percent of accidents annually reported to USCG are invisible in the BARD database as supplied to manufacturers and safety experts. This articles call for making those accidents visible, and explain how that could be done.

Our in-depth coverage is divided into 5 segments.

1. Handout summarizing our coverage
 
2. Post Sale Duty to Monitor Product Risks / Accidents: Boating Industry
 
3. Moral Responsibility to Monitor Products Post Sale: Boating Industry
 
4. How to Monitor Boating Product Accidents / Risks Post Sale
 
5. Full access to BARD is CRITICAL for monitoring product safety after sale
 
6. We encourage you to return to item #1 the summary handout

References: Post Sale Duty to Monitor / Surveillance of Product Safety Issues & Incidents

• National Electronic Injury Surveillance System (NEISS)
• CPSC Recall Handbook
• SaferProducts.gov
• Recalls.gov boats
• BoatUS Consumer Protection Bureau
• Product Safety in Europe: A Guide to Corrective Action Including Recalls
• The Increased Duty to Take Post-Sale Remedial Action. Kenneth Ross. Committee Perspective. Product Liability Committee. For the Defense. April 2002. Pgs. 37-42.
• Online Efforts Can Put Companies at Risk. Sarah Olson. The Connecticut Law Tribune. Vol.34. No.49. 8 December 2008.
• Failure to Warn: A Product Liability Issue by Richard J. McAlpin of McAplin and Brais of Miami Florida. Presented at Boating Week 2000 in Orlando Florida. We covered it back then on our RBBI.com site.
• U.S. Coast Guard Annual Recreational Boating Statistics reports
• U.S. Coast Guard annual Releasable BARD databases
• Privacy Impact Assessment for the Boating Accident Report Database. U.S. Department of Homeland Security. 12 November 2009.

Those wishing to perform additional research in this field may find the keywords below helpful.

• post sale, post-sale
• field monitoring
• post sale product performance
• post sale surveillance
• post sale remediation
• post sale duty to warn
• monitor product performance
• post market surveillance plans and vigilance
• Kenneth Ross
• Consumer Product Safety Commission recalls
• Social Media
• EuroSafe IDB

Comments

As always, we welcome your comments and suggestions regarding this topic or whatever else may be on your mind related to boating safety issues.