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PUBLIC LAW 89-777-NOV. 6, 1966

[80

STAT.

Public Law 89-777 November 6, 1966 [H. R. 10327]

Vessels. Safety standards.

Promulgation of regulations.

16 UST 185.

Death or injury to p a s s e n g e r s. Financial responsibility of • owners, e t c.

AN ACT .;-,-. w.-^^ To require evidence of adequate financial responsibility to pay judgments for personal injury or death, or to repay fares in the event of nonperformance of voyages, to establish minimum standards for passenger vessels and to require disclosure of construction details on passenger vessels, and for other purposes.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That section 4400 of the Revised Statutes, as amended (46 U.S.C. 362) is hereby further amended by designating the existing section as subsection (a) and by adding new subsections (b) and (c) as follows: " (b) Owners, operators, agents, or any persons selling passage on a foreign or domestic passenger vessel of one hundred gross tons or over having berth or stateroom accommodations for fifty or more passengers and embarking passengers at United States ports for a coastwise or an international voyage shall notify each prospective passenger of the safety standards with which the vessel complies or does not comply in a manner prescribed by regulations promulgated in accordance with this subsection. I n addition, all promotional literature or advertising in or over any medium of communication within the United States offering passage or soliciting passengers for ocean voyages anywhere in the world shall include similar information as a part of the advertisement or description of the voyage in a manner prescribed by the same regulations. The Secretary of the Department in which the Coast Guard is operating is authorized to promulgate regulations to implement the provisions of this subsection. For each violation of regulations so promulgated, the owner, operator, agent, or other person involved shall be subject to a civil penalty of not more than $10,000 for which the vessel on which passage is to be or is sold shall be liable. If tickets are sold, the owner, operator, agent, or any other person involved in each violation of regulations so promulgated shall also be subject to a civil penalty of $500 for each ticket sold for which the vessel on which passage is sold shall be liable. "(c) Notwithstanding the provisions of subsection (a) of this section, any foreign or domestic vessel of over 100 gross tons having berth or stateroom accommodations for 50 or more passengers, shall not depart a United States port with passengers who are United States nationals, and who embarked at that port, if the Secretary of the Department in which the Coast Guard is operating finds that such vessel does not comply with the standards set forth in the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea, 1960, as modified by the amendments proposed by the thirteenth session of the Maritime Safety Committee of the Inter-governmental Maritime Consultative Organization contained in Annexes I through IV of the Note Verbale of the Secretary General of the Organization dated 17 May 1966, No. Al/C/3.07 ( N V. l). " SEC. 2. (a) Each owner or charterer of an American or foreign vessel having berth or stateroom accommodations for fifty or more passengers, and embarking passengers at United States ports, shall establish, under regulations prescribed by the Federal Maritime Commission, his financial responsibility to meet any liability he may incur for death or injury to passengers or other persons on voyages to or from United States ports, in an amount based upon the number of passenger accommodations aboard the vessel, calculated as follows: $20,000 for each passenger accommodation up to and including five hundred; plus $15,000 for each additional passenger accommodation between five hundred and one and one thousand; plus

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