Seventeen: the number of lives lost due to boating accidents on Maryland’s waterways this year.
On Friday, Lt. Col. Ken Ziegler, the acting supervisor of the state’s Natural Resources Police, announced plans to try and curb that number before the summer boating season ends. Starting this weekend, Natural Resources Police will place additional patrols on the water and will deploy its reserve officers to the state’s busiest marina’s and boat ramps to give free safety inspections.
The campaign will remain until Labor Day, the unofficial close of the summer boating season.
“Any where we think we’ll need to be – we’ll be,” Ziegler said.
The additional patrols and Friday’s press conference were in response to a spike in boating deaths this year. So far in 2015, there have been five more boating deaths than there were in 2014, NRP spokeswoman Candy Thomson said.
With weeks left in the summer boating season, the number is two less than the deadliest years on record. In 1996 and 2011, there were 19 boating deaths, Thomson said.
Though officers will be deployed throughout the state, Ziegler made clear one area where officers will definitely be: the Chesapeake Bay. Just last Sunday Adrian Perez, 46, of Upper Marlboro was killed after the 17-foot center console motor boat he was aboard sank just north of the Bay Bridge and west of the Bay’s main channel.
“All you have to do is ride over the Bay Bridge and see all of the boating traffic out there,” said Ziegler, who declined to release specifics of how many additional officers or patrols will be deployed.
Of the 17 boating deaths this year, three were in Anne Arundel including last weekend’s incident.
On Aug. 1, 53-year-old Diane Houst, of Riviera Beach, died when she slipped and fell off a boat on Nabbs Creek. Just one day earlier, on July 31, 63-year-old Ronald Gressitt, 63, was killed after he fell off a boat in Cornfield Creek.
An additional three people died in swimming and other water-related incidents in the county since June 1.
Anne Arundel County Fire Chief Allan Graves noted that the county has 530 miles of shore line. Of the 175,000 boats registered in the state, 25,000 are registered in the county, the fire chief said.
Fourteen of the seventeen fatal boating accident victims were not wearing personal flotation devices, or PFDs, Ziegler said.
This was the case last weekend on the Chesapeake Bay, Ziegler pointed out. Although the boat that Perez was riding on last Sunday did have life jackets on board, they had been stowed away at the time the boat sank, Ziegler said.
“Waiting to put on your PFD when you need it is like saying I’ll put my safety belt on before I have a (car) accident,” Graves said.
Karinne Merical, a spokeswoman for the Coast Guard’s Sector Baltimore, encouraged boaters to check the weather before heading out, make sure they have reliable communication and leave a float plan.
Merical encouraged boaters to download the Coast Guard’s Boating Safety, available for the iPhone and Droid products. The location-based app can be used to request emergency assistance or a vessel safety check and create a float plan.
Although cellphones are good, Merical still encouraged boaters to have a VHF radio on board.
Ziegler said that the most important thing for boaters to remember is to operate their boat safely – not under the influence of drugs or alcohol, and to make sure that all safety gear is in place and that the boat is working properly.
“This campaign is not about writing tickets,” Ziegler said. “We want our citizens to be safe.”
