Published: July 02, 2009 09:24 am      

Outdoors: Make sure to be cautious every time you go boating

Boating fatalities this year as of June 18 stand at 18. In the same time frame last year, 31 boaters died.

“It’s not clear why we are seeing a drop in fatal accidents, but it is certainly welcome news,” Texas Game Warden Maj. Alfonso Campos, TPWD’s chief of marine enforcement, said. “Following the fatalities on Belton Lake, Lake Grapevine, Lewisville Lake, Lake Lavon and Richard Chambers Reservoir back in March, we really stepped up our public education efforts. Maybe that made a difference, or maybe people are just being more careful.”

Over the Memorial Day holiday, there were no fatal boating accidents in Texas, something Campos called “remarkable.”

Let’s keep this good 90-day safety record going. We don’t want the statistics to play catch-up on the high water traffic July 4 weekend.

One of the reasons for lower fatalities this year, compared to the near-record high of 61 fatalities in 2008, is the first implementation of a “no refusal” weekend on Lake Conroe. Simply meaning, if the driver of a boat is suspected by game wardens of being intoxicated he must take the breath test.

That weekend on Lake Conroe, there were no boating accidents at all.

“The public was aware due to extensive media coverage and we received a number of thanks from the boating public for taking such a strong stance against Boating While Intoxicated,” Texas Game Warden Capt. Ron VanderRoest said. “Texas Game Wardens on Lake Conroe arrested eight suspects for BWI, two for narcotics violations, one for failure to ID fugitive and also issued more than 175 citations.”

VanderRoest said that at least three more “no refusal” weekends are slated for the lake over the summer, with the largest effort slated for the July 4 holiday weekend.

Let’s hope this becomes standard procedure on all our lakes any weekend.

Many of our lakes will be patrolled very heavily this weekend with an emphasis on stopping drunk drivers.

My daughter Teresa and her husband Bill Paschall live on the Pedernales arm of Lake Travis. There won’t be any boating accidents near her house this holiday because the river is dry.

They have been riding their Polaris ATV all around the river bed. But on years when the lake has water in it, the July 4 weekend is dangerous.

I’ve been there watching from Teresa’s dock. Speed boats with all the occupants drinking race up and down the lake like it is an interstate highway.

I don’t want to be in the water waiting for my ski boat to pull me up with drunk drivers zipping all around. That’s a disaster just waiting to happen.

Campos cautioned that the lower numbers of boating fatalities so far this year does not mean that boaters should be any less vigilant or careful on the water.

“Maybe we’re getting a little bit smarter about how we have fun on the water,” he said. “But maybe we’ve just been lucky. Either way we would be very happy if this trend continues and fewer families have to experience the tragedy of losing a loved one on the lake.”

Campos reminded boaters to wear their life jackets, designate a sober driver on the water and for a safe ride home — and to enroll in an approved boater education course.

“If everyone would do those three things, we’d see a huge reduction in these largely preventable accidents,” he said.



Jim Darnell is an ordained minister and host/producer of the syndicated television show “God’s Great Outdoors.” His column appears every Thursday in the Daily Record.