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Boaters Often "Leave Their Brains at Home"

August 22, 2007 - Perry Edwards is a longtime state boating safety coordinator in Oxford County. He teaches a one-day course on first aid, survival, and rules of the water; last month he didn't get a single taker.

"Every time I go out, I see people doing foolish things that could kill them," he said.

Boaters speed, don't hang out the right lights, cruise near swimmers, overload with passengers.

"It almost seems like when people get into a boat, they leave their brains at home."

Edwards knew one victim, Suzanne Groetzinger. She had a child with Edward's son.

"My job is one of those jobs where you wonder what we could have been done to prevent it," Edwards said.

There are no firm speed limits on Maine waterways. No motor boats are banned based on their size, on even the smallest of waterways.

When there are restrictions, they're based on horsepower, most typically, nothing over 10.

Only about a dozen wardens, at any one time, watch and patrol 6000 ponds and lakes, according to one of the two state boating law administrators.

Twelve people died in boating accidents last year, the majority in overturned canoes and kayaks. Another 42 were injured.

Edwards believes that a mandatory safety course, like those required in most states, is the answer. The latest push for that failed in the Legislature last winter.

"If you put life jackets on people who are in canoes and kayaks, and then you had a mandatory training course for boating, I think the two of those would do great service to keeping accidents from happening and saving lives," echoed Colonel Thomas Santaguida, head of the Warden Service and a state boating law administrator.

Given the number of boats and people out there, the state has been relatively safe, Santaguida said.

"Maine boaters are great. We have over 100,000 registered boats in Maine, and I don't know how many hundreds of thousands of boater days each season -- and we have a short season so the boater days or compressed. We average between 60 and 80 boating accidents a year," he said.

In comparison, New Hampshire had 79 accidents last year, Massachusetts 46, according to records compiled by the US Coast Guard. New Hampshire had 101,297 registered boats, Massachusetts 148,640.

Several laws on the books get at boating behavior. It's a misdemeanor to go faster than the bare minimum within 200 feet of shore, with exceptions like picking up a water skier.

"You can't go so fast as to create a wake -- commonly ignored," said Sportsmen's Alliance of Maine's George Smith.

It's also a misdemeanor to harass other people in the water or operate beyond "reasonable and prudent" speeds for the conditions.

"You can't inconvenience in any manner, any watercraft or their occupants," said Santaguida, who used to patrol from Bridgton to Bethel. This turf included Long Lake.

He allowed that "inconvenience" is subjective.

In 2005, the last year information is available, across the entire state, two boaters with summoned for reckless operation and one for operating to endanger. No one was ticketed for imprudent operation.

Neighboring New Hampshire has done a slow rollout of a mandatory boating course and test. Next year, every boater, even visitors, we'll have to take it to drive anything over 25 hp, marine patrol Sergeant Crystal McClain said.

The Granite State has no wake zones that vary on different bodies of water. It's also against the law there to go above 6 mph within 150 feet of anything -- swimmer, mooring, another boat.

Pending is a decision to enact speed limits on two strips of Lake Winnipesaukee; 45 mph by day, 25 mph by night. Boater safety is definitely a huge issue, McClain said.

The Legislature did decide last year to require that 16 to 18-year-olds take a course to operate craft like jet skis or be accompanied by an older person. Those under 16 can't operate them, period.

The Maine boating law book, handed out with every registration, says it's legal for someone as young as 12 to helm a motor boat alone.

Life jackets aren't required on anyone over age 10, with the exception of stretches of the Saco, Penobscot and Kennebec rivers, when they're also required for adults.

Lights are required from sunset to sunrise, an issue that's been raised in the Harrison case. Smith said when someone's out fishing, in practice they probably won't turn lights on until they head back to shore. "A huge percentage of Maine boats don't actually have the proper lighting; you'll see people going downstream with a flashlight," he said.

The Inland Fisheries and Wildlife Department, through the Legislature, sets restrictions on bodies of water in Maine, everything from banning personal watercraft to limiting horsepower.

The only restriction on Long Lake is that rental agents display visible decals on personal watercraft.

Santaguida expects to be "right in the middle" of the investigation aftermath in Harrison. It was too early to say what lessons might be gleaned from this latest accident, he said.

Edwards, who lives in Paris, said the reminders to stay safe, and be safe, often come out of tragedy.

"Many things often do," he said. "It seems to take things like this to wake people up, especially the young."

This article originally appeared in the Sun Journal, August 17, 2007.


Lakes:
Regions: Sebago, Belgrade, Rangeley, Moosehead, Sanford, Bangor, Katahdin, Embden, Houlton, Lincoln, Jackman, Presque Isle, Allagash, Calais, Mid Coast, Downeast


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