Utah officers target drunk boaters as part of holiday weekend safety blitz

UTAH – This vacation weekend, officers are monitoring down security issues on the water, together with drunk boaters.

Officers with Utah State Parks are ramping up enforcement at a number of in style boating spots, together with Jordanelle Reservoir, Willard Bay and Bear Lake. Further officers are centered on Flaming Gorge.

“We attempt to hit the place we’re going to have essentially the most impression, be capable to speak to the most individuals, educate extra individuals,” mentioned Lt. Drew Patterson with Utah State Parks.

They’re becoming a member of regulation enforcement throughout the nation within the nationwide marketing campaign Operation Dry Water, which raises consciousness of the risks of cruising beneath the affect.

Patterson and 5 different officers have been on patrol at Jordanelle Reservoir on Saturday. They arrested at the very least one man for DUI and gave quite a lot of citations and warnings for different violations whereas doing vessel security checks.

“The largest factor that we discover are undersized life jackets,” Patterson mentioned. “An grownup has a child life jacket that doesn’t match them.”

He confused life jackets are notably essential for Utah households no matter how they’re having fun with the water, from standup paddleboards to tubes and boats, as a result of a number of individuals have drowned this yr.

Different boat operators acquired warnings or citations by having expired insurance coverage, registration or fireplace extinguishers.