AUGUSTA – Two months after a deadly boating collision on Long Lake, a Harrison lawmaker wants to change Maine boating laws to make the activity safer.

Rep. Richard Sykes, R-Harrison, is proposing four laws on boating safety including one that would limit the size of boat motors on Long Lake to 500 horsepower or less.

His legislation is in response to an Aug. 11 nighttime crash that killed Terry Raye Trott and Suzanne Groetzinger, Sykes said. The wreck occurred on a section of the lake that is in Harrison but near the Naples town line.

Sykes said most constituents’ concerns deal with speed on the lake, but boating speed limits are difficult to enforce. Instead, he wants to establish a horsepower restriction on Long Lake and Brandy Pond.

Sykes also wants to establish a position of a summer warden within the warden service, to better enforce boating laws during the high-traffic season. Rep. Mark Bryant, D-Windham, has submitted a similar bill.

Several legislators, including Sykes, are targeting boater education. Sykes said he would like to establish a course all boaters must take before being licensed. The course could be offered online, he said, noting that most other states already have such a requirement.

Bryant, Rep. Richard Cleary, D-Houlton, and Rep. Thomas Watson, D-Bath, all submitted similar bills.

Sykes also wants to establish a minimum age of 16 for the operation of “certain motorboats.”

Sykes said it’s scary that the kind of boat involved the August collision accident, “could have been operated by a 12-year-old kid.” State boating laws allow a 12-year-old to pilot a boat with an engine larger than 10 horsepower if someone at least 16 is supervising.

The fatal crash on Long Lake highlights the need for new laws, but even those laws may not have prevented it, Sykes said.

“You cannot legislate common sense,” he said.

James Bowden, the owner of Maine-ly Action Sports in Oxford, seemed skeptical that the new laws will have an impact on safety. He compared it to a car accident caused by a Corvette, and then lawmakers respond by banning Corvettes.

Horsepower is not directly related to speed, Bowden said. A smaller 500-horsepower boat can travel faster than a larger one, he said.

Restricting crafts would also take business away from Long Lake marina owners, he said.

Since the bills were submitted after the filing deadline, they must be approved by the Legislative Council, made up of House and Senate leaders, before advancing. If they advance, they will be considered by joint legislative committees during the 2008 session.

Trott, 55, of Naples, and Groetzinger, 44, of Berwick, were killed after their 14-foot motorboat was struck by a 34-foot, dual-engine high-performance boat piloted by Robert LaPointe Jr., 38, of Medway, Mass.

Earlier this month LaPointe was indicted by a Cumberland County grand jury on two counts of manslaughter and four counts of aggravated operating under the influence. He was also indicted on one count of reckless conduct with a dangerous weapon.

LaPointe’s craft was powered by two 435-horsepower engines and traveling at an estimated 45 miles per hour in the dark when it struck the smaller craft, according to game wardens and the Cumberland County district attorney. LaPointe turned himself in to the Cumberland County Jail and was released on a $100,000 cash bail.

Since the crash some boating industry officials and others have said that LaPointe’s craft was too big and powerful for narrow Long Lake, and many have called for new boating regulations.

Sykes said he drafted the bills after conversations with constituents and Maine’s chief game warden, Col. Thomas Santaguida.

The Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife cannot take an official position on the bills until the final language is drafted, Santaguida said Monday.

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