DNR Warns Boaters Not To Drink And Drive This Summer
Posted
Amanda Bridgman-
Most people generally wouldn't load up a cooler with booze and invite their friends and family to hop in the car for a joyride. But when it comes to a boat, that's commonly how it goes.
While Indiana open container laws differ between vehicles and boats, the consequences of drinking and driving do not. Catching a boating while intoxicated charge will result in the immediate suspension of all driving license privileges by the Bureau of Motor Vehicles just as if you'd been caught drinking and driving on a road.
One stiff drink or a couple of beers will put a person at the 0.08% blood alcohol content intoxication legal limit. A cooler full of beer and a day out in the sun on the water can quickly get away from lakegoers, Indiana Department of Natural Resources Law Enforcement Division Capt. Jet Quillen said. "A boating while intoxicated arrest is serious,” he said.
Kosciusko County lakes are patrolled by DNR conservation officers, and the Kosciusko County Sheriff's Office marine patrol polices Lake Wawasee and Tippecanoe Lake.
According to statistics provided by Quillen, officers in Kosciusko County made 54 BWI cases between 2014 and 2018, averaging 10.8 BWI per year. Within that same five-year span, 30 boating accidents were investigated, averaging at six per year.
Since May, four people have been arrested for BWI on Kosciusko County lakes, including one accident.
Fourth of July events kick off this weekend, and that means fireworks over the lake, hundreds of part-time residents coming back to their lake houses and boats and water sports in full swing.
Drinking and driving on and off the water is not worth it. An arrest, a jail bond, an attorney and losing driving privileges are just some of the costly and damaging consequences.
Police are more concerned about the deadly consequences.
"Boating while intoxicated has some additional dangers," Quillen said. "Boats do not have breaks, boats do not have seatbelts. If you get thrown out of your boat, you're in the water. It's causing a risk to not only just the people in the boat, but to other people in the water."
Quillen suggests people designate a sober boat operator before leaving shore.
"If the boat operator isn't sober, the dangers don't end when they get off the water," Quillen said. "If you're leaving that lake, now you're driving a motor vehicle with the size of a boat - essentially a missile - loaded on the back of your vehicle, and that's an additional danger."
Public intoxication charges are easily picked up on land and on the water. Violation of the public intoxication law means a person is behaving in a way that is a danger to themselves, to someone else or causing a disturbance.
"Our officers are pretty observant," Quillen said. "We see it often where people switch drivers. If we see a boat in violation of a state boating law, we are observant of that boat, and if they switch operators it doesn't matter, now we have two people observed operating a boat."
Quillen said spending time on the water and having a good time is encouraged, but DNR wants everyone to do it safely.
"I don't think people set out to violate this law and to put other people at risk," he said. "I just think their mindset is we're out having a good time."
