By The Chronicle employees
The state Home Transportation Committee is scheduled to carry a public listening to on state Rep. Peter Abbarno’s invoice, Home Invoice 1004, on Wednesday, Jan. 25 at 4 p.m.
Known as “Zack’s Regulation,” the invoice would require authorities businesses to erect indicators warning readers of drowning hazards in honor of 18-year-old Zachary Lee Rager, who drowned within the Chehalis River after experiencing cold-water shock.
On March 23, 2021, a sunny day that noticed temperatures attain 72 levels, Rager informed his pals he wished to leap from the railroad trestle bridge alongside the Willapa Hills Path, one thing he had finished a number of instances earlier than with out problem. However, as he started swimming again to shore, Rager began calling out to his pals for assist due to the chilly water. As his pals tried to assist him, his physique went limp and he drowned.
“This measure will assist inform the general public concerning the very actual risks posed by diving or leaping into chilly water,” mentioned Abbarno, R-Centralia, the invoice’s sponsor. “If Zack’s Regulation saves even a single life, it is value passing.”
Beneath the invoice, indicators can be erected when changing presently present indicators or erecting new indicators close to harmful water hazards. Indicators can be positioned on the identical time upgrades are made to bridges and different water-adjacent infrastructure to be able to reduce prices to taxpayers. The invoice would additionally permit the general public to donate cash to the state authorities to assist erect indicators in areas identified to draw individuals to probably hazardous waterways.
“I encourage residents to take part within the legislative course of,” Abbarno mentioned. “Let’s get Zack’s Regulation over the end line and assist stop one other tragedy.”
The invoice was beforehand handed by the Home Transportation Committee throughout the 2022 legislative session, however did not advance out of the Home Guidelines Committee earlier than an necessary legislative deadline.
To view or present public testimony on the Home Transportation Committee’s public listening to, go to https://app.leg.wa.gov/csi/home. To touch upon HB 1004, go to https://app.leg.wa.gov/pbc/invoice/1004. The Transportation Committee’s public listening to will probably be streamed reside at https://www.tvw.org/watch/?eventID=2023011494.