The Coast Guard issued marine safety alert 07-14 which comes from a recent incident where a tour boat customer fell into an unprotected two step stair well and received significant injuries.

This type of vessel design, with a stair well leading to the head, is very common. There may be hundreds of these vessels in operation as tour boats, water taxis, dive boats, etc., world over.

The Coast Guard strongly recommends vessel owners and operators read the full safety alert and address identified concerns.

For questions or concerns please email the Office of Investigations and Casualty Analysis .

Please see full safety alert for photographs and additional information.

This blog is not a replacement or substitute for the formal posting of regulations and updates or existing processes for receiving formal feedback of the same. Links provided on this blog will direct the reader to official source documents, such as the Federal Register, Homeport and the Code of Federal Regulations. These documents remain the official source for regulatory information published by the Coast Guard.