As Fourth of July Arrives, Boating Safety Takes Center Stage

As Uncle Sam celebrates his 248th birthday this week, the numbers say play it safe on the water, especially where life jackets are concerned.

July 01, 2024 By Lynn Burkhead

The Fourth of July holiday is center stage this week with millions of Americans looking forward to celebrating Uncle Sam's birthday. With Independence Day on a Thursday this year, many will enjoy a four-day holiday weekend with a great chance to enjoy family, friends, food, fireworks and maybe some fishing, too. And as is typically the case for the holiday across America, plenty of mid-summer fun will be had out on the water in a boat, paddle craft or personal watercraft.

Before we continue toward this liquified fun, let me confess that yes, this story is yet another one about summertime boating safety. And once again, I’ll admit up front that sometimes these stories don’t always strike a chord with readers and Independence Day fun-seekers. We’ve heard it all before, the safety rules that annually show up from state wildlife agencies during summer holiday weekends: wear your life jacket, don’t drink and drive a boat, watch out for storms and lightning, etc.

But we shouldn’t tune out the boating and water safety messaging because every year families across the country are impacted as a day at the lake turns from a news release into a real-life tragedy.

A few weeks ago over the Memorial Day holiday weekend, this truth was driven home yet again in Texas where Texas Parks and Wildlife Department game wardens responded to seven boating accidents, one boating fatality and seven drownings across the Lone Star State. According to a news release from the Austin based TPWD, the boating fatality occurred at Taylor Bayou and the drownings occurred at Benbrook Lake, Lake Bridgeport, Canyon Lake, Eagle Mountain Lake, Lake Lewisville, Sabine Lake and Lake Texoma.

Even though the news release noted a reduction in boating accidents this year as compared to the Memorial Day holiday weekend a year ago, the rise in drowning numbers was indeed tragic news. And a look at the other numbers related to boating safety across Texas that holiday weekend found a few troubling numbers that could have led to additional tragedy and terrible news..

Between Friday and Monday of the 2024 Memorial Day holiday weekend, 379 TPWD game wardens conducted 11,609 vessel checks across the state. Those same game wardens issued 1,528 citations and 2,301 warnings for various boating safety law violations, along with arresting 37 people for boating while intoxicated (BWI) and four people for driving while intoxicated (DWI). Additionally, TPWD reports that another 55 people were arrested for various other crimes.

Thankfully, the hard work by game wardens helped get just more than three dozen BWI offenders off the water before they could cause potential harm to themselves and others. And that's certainly a good thing.

“I am pleased to see that game wardens’ efforts to keep the public safe on the water are making an impact and saving lives through a reduction in the numbers of boating accident and boating related fatalities,” said Cody Jones, Texas Game Warden assistant commander for marine enforcement, in the news release. “But we can’t let our guard down. The Texas heat drove people to cool off at area waterways, leading to a marked increase in open water drownings from the previous year’s Memorial Day weekend holiday.”

Now that attention is turning to Uncle Sam's birthday this week, TPWD says that its 16th annual Operation Dry Water (ODW) will occur over this holiday weekend. A part of a three-day national enforcement campaign that focuses on boating under the influence, this ODW effort will run July 4-6, 2024.

TPWD notes that in 2023, its state game wardens made 172 BWI arrests throughout the year. Of those, some 56 of the BWI arrests came during the July 4th holiday weekend and the ODW effort. The three-day holiday period a year ago actually accounted for 33 percent of Texas' BWI arrests notes TPWD.

It's also worth noting that holiday boaters might want to heed the state's reminder that thanks to recent legislative changes, one BWI arrest (is now) classified as a state jail felony for boating while intoxicated with a child passenger. That’s because TPWD reports that during the 88th legislative session, the Texas Legislature in Austin approved changes to BWI statutes in Texas, making a BWI with a child under the age of 15 on board a state jail felony, which matches the charges for DWI with a child passenger. FYI, this new law went into effect Sept. 1, 2023 and the charge here is now punishable by six months to two years in state jail and a maximum $10,000 fine.

The Boating Safety Seven

While Texas is certainly a vast aquatic playground with numerous lakes, rivers, bays, estuaries, and Gulf of Mexico shoreline miles, the boating and water safety numbers that came out of the late May holiday weekend this year were better than a year ago. But they still carried an edge of disappointment because despite overall boating accident numbers being down from a year ago, TPWD game wardens continued to find a disturbing trend as they patrolled the state's waterways. And that's engaging numerous people on boats, personal watercrafts, kayaks and stand-up paddleboards who were not wearing life jackets.

And that continues among the worst trends in Texas' boater safety news, since wearing a lifejacket is a bedrock principle in any boating safety discussion.

“A number of water safety incidents over the (2024 Memorial Day) holiday weekend could have been avoided by people wearing life jackets and taking boater education,” noted Kimberly Sorensen, TPWD boating education manager, in the agency’s news release after the late May weekend.

Fast forward to the mid-summer holiday now in front of everyone this week, and if it sounds like wearing a life jacket during this Fourth of July holiday weekend remains of paramount importance for those getting on the water, well, it is. But don’t think that it’s the only boating safety principle to take heed of, either. In fact, the National Safe Boating Campaign, a worldwide effort focused on responsible boating led by the National Safe Boating Council, offers numerous free resources that continue to encourage responsible and safe boating.

And according to them, your on-the-water safety begins with these seven tips:

1. Wear your life jacket
2. Take a boating safety class
3. Carry all required safety gear
4. Use your engine cut-off switch
5. File a float plan
6. Be aware of weather and water conditions
7. Boat sober, and be considerate of others

Like so much of the safe boating messaging from the National Safe Boating Council and their natural resource agency counterparts across the nation, this push continues to center around the wearing of a life jacket, or personal floatation device (PFD). Doing so is vitally important since TPWD reports that two years ago in 2022, drowning accounted for 50 percent of deaths on the water and was the leading cause of death in recreational boating fatalities. Of those, TPWD notes that 69 percent of the victims that year were not wearing a life jacket.

"Life jackets are one of the easiest, most accessible tools to prevent fatalities,” notes TPWD Game Warden Assistant Commander for Marine Enforcement Cody Jones. "If an accident occurs, it is unlikely you will have time to find a life jacket and secure it properly, so it’s best to wear one at all times when on the water."

That truth was echoed in recent months by one of Texas’ top fly fishing guides, Alvin Dedeaux, who owns the Orvis-endorsed All Water Guides and guides on the Colorado River east of Austin for largemouth bass, in the Texas Hill Country for Guadalupe bass and rainbow trout, and on the Texas Gulf Coast for redfish. Guiding hundreds of trips annually, the well-known guide put out a YouTube video a few months back that dealt with the idea of the "Most Important Gear on the Boat." Dedeaux, who has guided clients on many thousands of trips over the years, says without question it’s the PFD.

Dedeaux is one cool customer and the former lead singer for the Texas band Bad Mutha Goose, he doesn’t work for TPWD, he isn’t paid to do life jacket commercials and he has no real reason to do a somber lifejacket video that is definitely a different vibe from his expansive and normally upbeat YouTube presence. Except for the fact, as he quietly notes, that as an everyday on-the-water guide, he’s tragically seen drowning victims lying lifeless on a boat ramp.

And that somber experience is something that you will not soon forget, no matter how cool and in demand you are.

"I'm really surprised at how many professional fishing guides, people who spend lots of time on the water, really smart people, don't wear them," he said. "Some people say they're hot, they're restrictive, I know how to swim. All those are really poor excuses."

Dedeaux makes sure that clients have them on when his rigs are underway.

"The thing is, nobody plans on having an accident," said Dedeaux. "Nobody plans on ending up out of the boat. It's an accident and usually, if something happens, you're not going to have time to grab your life jacket on your way out of the boat."

I'm a big fan of Dedeaux, his humble demeanor and fun personality, his cool expertise in all things fly fishing in Texas, and his awesome instructional videos. And like many in the Texas angling world, I was deeply saddened a few weeks ago when he and his children lost their wife and mother, Lenée Dedeaux, to a battle with cancer. I’d suspect that Dedeaux will find a way to continue on guiding in the years ahead as he navigates the tragically altered family landscape that he and his girls now face. And if he does so, as one of the most experienced guides in the state of Texas, I’d expect to continue hearing him say that he believes a PFD is the most important thing he can carry on his boats.

And well, that's saying something, because he doesn’t have to do that.

But the need to wear a life jacket continues to get said by many, and necessarily so, from natural resource agencies to fishing guides to the U.S. Coast Guard. In fact, while the good news in the USCG's 2023 calendar year statistics report on recreational boating across the country shows a decrease in both boating fatalities and incidents—the USCG report showed that boating accident fatalities fell by 11.3 percent last year, from 636 in 2022 to 564 in 2023, and overall boating incidents fell 4.9 percent, from 2022's 4,040 to 2023's 3,844—tthere remains a disturbing trend.

What's that trend? Simple—according to the USCG's news release, drowning accounted for 75 percent of deaths, with 87 percent of those victims not wearing life jackets.

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Top 10 States By Recreational Boating Accidents

From the National Safe Boating Council (Statistics from the U.S. Coast Guard’s 2023 Recreational Boating Statistics)

1. Florida (619 accidents; 54 deaths)
2. California (339 accidents; 30 deaths)
3. Texas (189 accidents; 33 deaths)
4. South Carolina (156 accidents; 23 deaths)
5. North Carolina (155 accidents; 19 deaths)
6. New Jersey (131 accidents; 7 deaths)
7. Missouri (122 accidents; 6 deaths)
8. Tennessee (117 accidents; 21 deaths)
9. Wisconsin (116 accidents; 24 deaths)
9. Maryland (116 accidents; 10 deaths)

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Without question, there are other boating safety considerations to keep in mind over the long holiday week and weekend as Independence Day approaches. In fact, the Iowa Department of Natural Resources put its own spin on the topic with a few memorable statements in one of their own news releases.

While not an exhaustive list, it includes such ideas as alcohol and safe boating don’t mix (my late friend Raymond Copley used to say that “He who goes forth on the Fourth with a fifth seldom comes forth on the Fifth”); being sure to check for open ramps and water hazards prior to heading out; making sure that the trailer lights, wheel bearings and the hitch are functioning properly on your trailer before a trip; ensuring that there is a current fire extinguisher and horn/whistle aboard; filing a float plan alerting others of where you’re going, what time you’ll return, and what type of watercraft you’ll be operating; and taking a boater education course if you haven’t already done so.

But as important as all of that may be, and it certainly is, everything above gets eclipsed by the biggest cornerstone truth of all when it comes to boating safety concerns.

What’s that, you ask? The Iowa DNR says simply to wear a life jacket—it floats, you don’t.