With Tuesday being the Fourth of July, a holiday often associated with spending the day at the lake, state officials are taking note that the number of drownings, fatalities and arrests on Georgia’s waters are dramatically lower this year compared to 2016.
The first six months of 2017 saw six boating fatalities, while 15 people died during the first half of last year, according to statistics provided by the Georgia Department of Natural Resources.
The number of drownings is down too – from 29 in the first half of 2016 to 21 so far this year, the DNR said.
“We like to see the lower number of boating incidents and drownings so far this year but our work isn’t done until those numbers are zero,” said Mark McKinnon, a spokesman for the Law Enforcement Division of the DNR.
In recent years, officials have promoted boat safety and anti-drowning heavily through campaigns such as SPLASH.
“We hope the public will take our boating safety and anti-drowning messages to heart,” McKinnon said. “A good day for us is when everyone has fun at the lake and makes it home safely at the end of the day.”
Police have made slightly fewer boating under the influence arrests this year compared to last, as well – 87 so far this year versus 93 this time last year, according to the DNR.
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