Independence Day weekend is here and that means Lanier will be one of the busiest lakes east of the Mississippi River, according to the Georgia Department of Natural Resources.
DNR Game Wardens, through Wednesday of this week, responded to 16 boating incidents including one fatality, two drownings, and handled 47 boating under the influence cases on Lake Lanier.
Game Warden Cpl. Dan Schay of Jackson County has worked for DNR for 15 years and said DNR hopes to run four or five patrol boats on Lake Lanier over the long Independence Day weekend. That’s about double the number out there on a normal weekend.
“Working Lake Lanier on July 4 weekend, it's just going to be some long days for us out here trying to make sure people are safe,” Schay said. “There's going to be a lot of boat traffic, probably going to be some boat incidents, and also some people arrested for boating under the influence.”
Schay said BUIs will be at the top of the list for enforcement activity this weekend, but Game Wardens also will be enforcing other laws as well to keep the lake and state’s waterways as safe as possible.
“What we're going to be looking for is any infraction of boater regulations here in the state: Kids not wearing life jackets while you're underway, moving violations, whether or not you have operational navigational lights at night and, of course, making sure that the operator is not impaired,” Schay said.
Georgia DNR Game Wardens, like their counterparts across the nation, are participating in Operation Dry Water this weekend to stop boating under the influence. But another major concern is people operating vessels, especially personal watercraft, in an unsafe manner.
Those who are within 100 feet of a dock, pier, piling, bridge structure, person in the water, or another vessel must operate at idle speed. That law also prohibits jumping the wake of another boat within 100 feet and buzzing other boats.
“So anytime you're operating the vessel within 100 foot of any object in the water, you need to be at idle speed,” Schay said. “A good example is a personal watercraft operating near a dock. You know if you're buzzing that dock, you can't do that. You’ve got to be at idle speed if you are within 100 feet of it.”
DNR spokesman Mark McKinnon said water safety is not just important on and in the lake, but anywhere there is a body of water – especially where children are involved.
“Please supervise your children,” McKinnon said. “Don’t let them out of your sight. Don’t assume somebody else is watching them. Make sure they have their lifejackets on, whether they’re in a boat – which is the law – or whether you’re in a swimming area somewhere. Put a lifejacket on them and don’t get buried in your cell phone or your iPad or your book. Keep your eyes on those kids and stay close to them – they can get away from you very quickly. We don’t like to work those kind of incidents. It’s absolutely a tragedy when a child especially drowns, and we have to deal with that and the family certainly has to deal with it.”
And if a child goes missing, don’t want to call for help. Sometimes seconds can mean the difference between finding a child safe and not.
“Oftentimes children are drawn to water so if you're at a picnic area and there's water nearby and suddenly your child is missing, one of the first places they may try to go is toward the water,” McKinnon said. “So, we want to get somebody out there. We want people to start looking immediately to try to find that child hopefully before they reach water. But it is important that you do not wait, and you get out there as quickly as you can to get help.
