The importance of not drinking and boating

There were two recent boating accidents on the national news involving high-profile bass tournaments, one involving a fatality. If professionals who spend a great deal of their days boating on the water can experience tragedies like this, it behooves us all to review boating safety rules and regulations before Memorial Day weekend and the beginning of the summer boating season.

Don’t drink and boat. That was the main push from www.boatus.org last summer. Greater than 50 percent of boating accidents involve alcohol. This is still an important mantra. Its website tells us that balance is critical on a boat. Simply falling overboard and drowning accounts for at least one in four boating fatalities.

Alcohol reduces inhibitions, causing normally cautious people to try stunts or enter high-risk situations a sober person would avoid.

Alcohol severely diminishes your ability to react to several different signals at once. It takes longer to receive information from your eyes, ears and other senses, and still more time to react.

Reduced night vision and the inability to distinguish red from green makes the intoxicated night boater an even greater hazard.

Exposure to sun, motion of the waves and the noise and vibration of your boat’s engine causes fatigue. Alcohol impairs your senses further.

Stressors, such as exposure to noise, vibration, sun, glare, wind and the motion of the water, affects boat operators and passengers, thus making drinking while boating even more dangerous than drinking and driving.

Research shows that hours of exposure to boating stressors produces a kind of a fatigue, or “boater’s hypnosis” which slows reaction time almost as much as if you were legally drunk.

Adding alcohol or drugs to boating stress-factors intensifies their affects — each drink multiplies your accident risk.

This year’s theme from the Boat US Foundation is “Keep Boating … Safe, Smart and Clean.”

With the hot weather arriving, lakes statewide will, no doubt, be filled with people looking to kick off the summer boating season.

Pleasure crafts, jet skis, fishermen and swimmers will co-exist for a long and, hopefully, safe summer.

Each year, countless numbers of people are involved in water-related accidents, many of which, with a little knowledge and common sense, could have been avoided altogether.

While I’m no expert, I have been around boats and boating most of my adult life and can tell you, from experience, things seem to happen twice as fast on the water than on land.

Having retired from state park management after 20 years, I had the somber experience of working several drowning incidents at Lake Tenkiller.

When I began fishing bass tournaments decades ago, it was mandatory everyone in the boat must have a life vest on before the vessel was underway.

Additionally, the boat driver must have a working “kill switch” with a lanyard attached to his person or life vest should he become incapacitated or ejected from the boat.

In my opinion, a “kill switch” is the unsung hero of a bass boat and other watercraft as well.

Not hooking up your kill switch is like not using your safety harness in a tree stand.

A number of years ago, I lost a close friend to a boating accident which still bothers me to this day. The incident involved a bass boat and a driver with a ton of experience but no life vest on and no kill switch hooked up because he was just testing out the boat motor repairs he had just completed.

Whether you own a boat nearly the size of the Titanic or the world’s smallest jet ski, get to know your vessel and how to properly operate it before hitting the lake.

When wading, swimming, boating or any other outdoor activity around water, you are urged to don a life vest.

A few years ago, Oklahoma Scenic Rivers Commission Administrator Ed Fite advised parents to make sure youngsters wear a life vest when within 10 feet of the water’s edge.

“I’ve never worked a drowning incident where a life jacket was in use,” Fite said at that time.

I would urge all parents and grandparents to make sure they and the children occupying canoes and kayaks, as well as other watercraft, are wearing life vests.

Another valuable tool made available to vessel owners is the boater’s safety course. At www.boat-ed.com, you can take an online course for Oklahoma boaters, print out the handbook, take the online exam numerous times and you pay the $34.95 only when you pass the course.

Who needs the card? A child 12 years of age or older but not yet 16 years of age may operate a vessel powered by a motor or combination of motors over 10 horsepower, a personal watercraft (PWC) or a sailpowered vessel 16 feet or more in length only if all of the following conditions are met:

• He or she has successfully completed an approved boating safety education course or passed a proctored equivalency examination and has received a Boater Education Certificate and …

• He or she is supervised by a competent person who is at least 18 years of age.

• If the vessel is other than a personal watercraft: The supervising person must be on board and in position to take immediate control of the vessel.

• If the vessel is a PWC: The person must supervise visually within 500 yards of the PWC.

Carry the Card: Vessel operators who are required to have a Boater Education Card must carry the card on board the vessel and have it available for inspection by an enforcement officer. Boater Education Card violations carry a fine of up to $500.

Even if you are above the age range specified needing the course, take the course. I’ve encouraged my wife and others to do so for the knowledge that can be gained.

One thing you’ll learn is what equipment to have when out on Oklahoma waters. For example, people on personal water crafts must wear a personal floatation device at all times. Children younger than age 13 must wear one when on a vessel less than 26 feet in length. Life jacket violations carry a fine of up to $500.

Another must-have item is the certification of registration. Validation decals must be displayed.

An ignition safety switch or “kill switch” is only required on personal watercraft, however, any type of vessel should have this device. Remember, it only helps you if you have the lanyard hooked to your person and is working correctly. Always keep this in your memory bank. Anything mechanical can break.

Oklahoma law establishes the following penalties. On a first conviction of operating under the influence of alcohol or drugs, the violator will receive a fine of up to $1,000. On a subsequent conviction of operating under the influence of alcohol or drugs, the violator will receive a fine of up to $2,500 and not less than $1,000.

If you plan to drink, don’t go boating, or save your alcohol for when you’ve arrived safely back at the dock.

Just remember this simple rule: Don’t drink and boat.

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John Kilgore is the former Greenleaf State Park manager. He can be reached by emailing him at jkilgoreoutdoors@yahoo.com.