LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – The Lake County Sheriff's Marine Patrol will be joining agencies across the country in a weekend enforcement campaign targeting boating under the influence.
“Operation Dry Water” takes place Friday, June 26, through Sunday, June 28.
“Last year, agencies from every state and federal agency participated,” said Sgt. Don McPherson, who oversees the Sheriff's Marine Patrol unit. “It is a crackdown on boating under the influence.”
McPherson believes boating under the influence, or BUI, is a bigger problem than many realize, and that many cases aren't caught.
Last year, there were three arrests for BUI in Lake County, he said.
So far this year, he said there has been one BUI arrest in connection to a boating accident.
As part of the Marine Patrol's participation this year, “We will be doing saturation patrol,” particularly in the evening hours from 6 to 11 p.m., McPherson said.
It's during those hours, McPherson said, that the Marine Patrol sees the majority of the BUI cases involved in an accident or some other incident.
Operation Dry Water began in 2009, according to the campaign Web site, www.operationdrywater.org , which is administered by the National Association of State Boating Law Administrators, or NASBLA.
Since Operation Dry Water's inception, the three-day enforcement weekend has resulted in law enforcement officers across the country removing 1,875 BUI operators from the nation’s waterways and making contact with over 604,250 boaters, NASBLA reported.
In 2014, 585 local, state and federal law enforcement agencies and US Coast Guard units from 56 state and territories participated in Operation Dry Water, the organization said.
NASBLA reported that while the weekend event is meant to heighten awareness, Operation Dry Water actually is a year-round boating under the influence awareness and enforcement campaign.
The mission, NASBLA said, is to reduce the number of alcohol and drug related accidents and fatalities through increased recreational boater awareness and foster a stronger and more visible deterrent to alcohol and drug use on the water.
Alcohol use is the leading contributing factor in recreational boater deaths, and a leading factor in recreational boating accidents, according to 2014 US Coast Guard recreational boating statistics.
In 2014, alcohol use was the primary factor in nearly one-fourth – or 21 percent – of boater deaths, according to the Operation Dry Water campaign.
NASBLA said boaters can become impaired more quickly on the water than on land due to a number of environmental “stressors” – wind, noise and the movement of the boat while on the water – that intensify the effects of alcohol or drug use on an individual while boating.
“The decision about whether to drink and boat under the influence is a choice every boater makes, ” says NASBLA Deputy Executive Director John Fetterman. “Boating under the influence is a 100-percent preventable crime. Operation Dry Water, participating law enforcement agencies and our boating safety partners encourage boaters to stay safe by staying sober while boating.”
In addition to Lake County, agencies in the neighboring counties of Glenn, Napa, Sonoma and Yolo counties will participate in Operation Dry Water this year, along with numerous other communities across the state, NASBLA reported.
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