Brian and Aleta Ball had come to terms with the 2016 death of their son, Matthew McHale, from carbon monoxide poisoning. After two failed attempts to pass laws to prevent this from occurring to other Annapolis families, they set up scholarships in his name, continued to celebrate his birthday every year and went on with their lives the best they could.
The pain of the November night that removed Matthew from the Ball family, after an overexposure to carbon monoxide while winterizing a shrink-wrapped boat, resurfaced recently when the family received a call, they said.
State Del. Joseline Peña-Melnyk, a Democrat representing District 21, was in the process of drafting House Bill 1322, which if passed would require gasoline-powered vessels on state waters to have carbon monoxide warning labels affixed in “conspicuous locations in certain areas of the vessel.”
The family, partnered with then-Sen. Ed Reilly, a Republican who represented District 33, proposed similar bills seven years ago after McHale’s death.
“It was a little shocking,” Aleta Ball said. “It had been years, and we kind of just put it in the back of our heads. We tried the first time, we really tried.”
While researching for the bill, one of Peña-Melnyk’s staff members discovered the failed 2017 and 2018 bills sponsored by Reilly. He rushed to inform his boss of the Balls’ story. Peña-Melnyk said she knew instantly that the bill she was drafting now had a deeper meaning.
“Their story just moved me,” Peña-Melnyk said. “I had to make an amendment request to name the bill after [Matthew].”
Peña-Melnyk has since worked alongside the Maryland Department of Natural Resources and leaders in the Maryland boating industry to draft a bill that benefits all parties involved. She said she settled on the carbon monoxide warning labels because of its cost-effective nature.
“We’re just trying to keep his name and we want people to be safe,” Ball said. “I knew nothing about carbon monoxide except that you can die from it. We’ve learned a lot since this happened to our family. The boating industry is huge in Maryland, so this prevents one of those silent killers.”
The legislation differs from Reilly’s bills and asks less of the boating industry. According to Ball, it was pushback from the boating community that stymied the previous legislation.
One of Reilly’s bills sought to require education and instruction on carbon monoxide safety and poisoning prevention in addition to the placement of carbon monoxide warning labels and detection systems.
The other failed bill, which was dubbed Matthew’s Law, attempted to prohibit businesses from winterizing boats that have already been shrink-wrapped. It was named after McHale due to its specificity.
McHale died on Nov. 5, 2016, while winterizing boats for his employer, Prestige Yacht Management in Annapolis. What was a routine job for McHale, who had recently purchased a boat he planned to live on, went awry because no Maryland laws stipulated an appropriate procedure for winterizing boats.
“The objective of this [bill] is that people know you can lose your life if you’re unaware of carbon monoxide on a boat,” Peña-Melnyk said. “This was a compromise to make sure that it does not have a fiscal note that is cost-prohibitive. This is a compromise where the boating industry is not burdened and the community is protected.”
Aleta Ball will testify before the Environment and Transportation Committee in March on behalf of Matthew’s Law.
“We just don’t want his passing to go unnoticed,” Ball said. “He was only 25, he was just on the cusp of trying to be out on his own and then this happened. We want people to be aware, even if it’s just a minute thing like carbon monoxide warning stickers.”
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