Missouri Laws 306.142 – Personal watercraft, regulations — personal flotation devices — age ..
1. No person shall operate a personal watercraft unless each person aboard is wearing a type I, type II, type III or type V personal flotation device approved by the United States Coast Guard.
2. A person operating a personal watercraft equipped by the manufacturer with a lanyard-type engine cutoff switch shall attach such lanyard to the person’s body, clothing, or personal flotation device as appropriate for the specific vessel.
Terms Used In Missouri Laws 306.142
- Guardian: A person legally empowered and charged with the duty of taking care of and managing the property of another person who because of age, intellect, or health, is incapable of managing his (her) own affairs.
- Guardian: if used in a section in a context relating to property rights or obligations, means conservator of the estate as defined in chapter 475. See Missouri Laws 1.020
- Operate: to navigate or otherwise use a motorboat or a vessel. See Missouri Laws 306.010
- Operator: the person who operates or has charge of the navigation or use of a vessel. See Missouri Laws 306.010
- person: may extend and be applied to bodies politic and corporate, and to partnerships and other unincorporated associations. See Missouri Laws 1.020
- Personal watercraft: a class of vessel, which is less than sixteen feet in length, propelled by machinery which is designed to be operated by a person sitting, standing or kneeling on the vessel, rather than being operated by a person sitting or standing inside the vessel. See Missouri Laws 306.010
- Property: includes real and personal property. See Missouri Laws 1.020
- State: when applied to any of the United States, includes the District of Columbia and the territories, and the words "United States" includes such district and territories. See Missouri Laws 1.020
- United States: includes such district and territories. See Missouri Laws 1.020
- Vessel: every motorboat and every description of motorized watercraft, and any watercraft more than twelve feet in length which is powered by sail alone or by a combination of sail and machinery, used or capable of being used as a means of transportation on water, but not any watercraft having as the only means of propulsion a paddle or oars. See Missouri Laws 306.010
- water patrol division: the division responsible for enforcing the provisions of this chapter on the waters of this state. See Missouri Laws 306.010
- Watercraft: any boat or craft, including a vessel, used or capable of being used as a means of transport on waters. See Missouri Laws 306.010
- Waters of this state: any waters within the territorial limits of this state and lakes constructed or maintained by the United States Army Corps of Engineers except bodies of water owned by a person, corporation, association, partnership, municipality or other political subdivision, public water supply impoundments, and except drainage ditches constructed by a drainage district, but the term does include any body of water which has been leased to or owned by the state department of conservation. See Missouri Laws 306.010
3. No person under fourteen years of age shall operate a personal watercraft on the waters of this state, except that a person under fourteen years of age may operate a personal watercraft if a person at least sixteen years of age is aboard the personal watercraft.
4. Every personal watercraft shall at all times be operated in a reasonable and prudent manner. Maneuvers which unreasonably or unnecessarily endanger life, limb or property, including, but not limited to, weaving through congested vessel traffic, jumping the wake of another vessel when visibility around such vessel is obstructed, becoming airborne or completely leaving the water while crossing the wake of another vessel within one hundred feet of the vessel creating the wake, operating at a speed in excess of a slow-no wake speed within fifty feet of any vessel or any person in or on the water, and operating at such a speed and proximity to another vessel so as to require the operator to swerve to avoid collision, shall constitute unsafe or reckless operation of a personal watercraft. No person shall operate a personal watercraft on any waters of this state for towing a person or persons on water skis, or a surfboard, or similar device unless there is a person on the personal watercraft, in addition to the operator, or an approved ski mirror attached to the personal watercraft, in a position to observe the progress of the person or persons being towed.
5. No person who owns a personal watercraft or who has charge over or control of a personal watercraft shall authorize or knowingly permit the personal watercraft to be operated in violation of this section, nor shall a parent or guardian authorize or knowingly permit a child of such parent or guardian to operate a personal watercraft in violation of this section.
6. The provisions of this section shall not apply to a person participating in a regatta, race, marine parade, tournament, or exhibition for which a permit has been issued by the water patrol division.