33 U.S.C. § 2007
Section 2007 · Risk of collision (Rule 7)
Amended 1 time on record
Applied in 24 court decisions — leading case Folkstone Maritime, Ltd. v. CSX Corp. (1995)
Most recently applied in Youngberg v. McKeough (August 2013)
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year.Markers show enactment, consequential amendments, and circuit splits over this section — watch for a citation surge after a change or a disagreement. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
Every vessel shall use all available means appropriate to the prevailing circumstances and conditions to determine if risk of collision exists. If there is any doubt such risk shall be deemed to exist.
Proper use shall be made of radar equipment if fitted and operational, including long-range scanning to obtain early warning of risk of collision and radar plotting or equivalent systematic observation of detected objects.
Assumptions shall not be made on the basis of scanty information, especially scanty radar information.
In determining if risk of collision exists the following considerations shall be among those taken into account:
(i) such risk shall be deemed to exist if the compass bearing of an approaching vessel does not appreciably change; and
(ii) such risk may sometimes exist even when an appreciable bearing change is evident, particularly when approaching a very large vessel or a tow or when approaching a vessel at close range.
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
Codification
Section was enacted as part of section 2 of Pub. L. 96–591 which enacted the Inland Navigational Rules which comprise this subchapter.