Ahoy Maties! Don't Drink and Drive Your Boat

If you're out on the water this weekend, you can expect to see an increased police presence. 

You know it's against the law to drink and drive on land. It's also against the law to drink and drive on the water — and the consequences of boating under the influence can be even more dire — with boats capsizing or passengers falling overboard.

To stem the tide of boating under the influence and to reduce boating accidents, local police agencies are participating in “Operation Dry Water,” a statewide effort involving the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) Environmental Conservation (EnCon) Police and the U.S. Coast Guard. Operation Dy Water is an annual effort that focuses on enforcing boating under the influence laws. 

Officers will be out in force June 27-29 checking for boaters with a Blood Alcohol Content exceeding the state limit of .08%.  

Operation Dry Water will include state-wide increased patrols and checkpoints, as well as boater education efforts. Impaired boaters can expect penalties to be severe. In Connecticut they include fines, jail and loss of boating privileges.

“The purpose of Operation Dry Water is to educate as many boaters as possible about the hazards of boating while under the influence and to reduce the number of alcohol and drug related accidents and deaths on the water,” Capt. Ryan Healy of the EnCon Police and spokesperson for the Operation Dry Water Campaign, said in a statement. “We want recreational boaters to enjoy themselves, but there will be zero tolerance for BUI.”

According to state officials, from 2008 through 2012, 18 of 38 fatal boating accidents were alcohol-related and 19 of 105 boating accidents with injuries involved alcohol.

A boat operator or even passengers with a blood alcohol concentration above the legal limit run a significantly increased risk of being involved in a fatal boating accident, according to officials. When impaired by alcohol, boating accidents are more likely and more deadly for both passengers and boat operators, many of whom capsize their vessel or simply fall overboard.

Operation Dry Water, a multi-agency, education and enforcement initiative launched by the National Association of State Boating Law Administrators (NASBLA) in 2009 in partnership with the U.S. Coast Guard, puts thousands of local, state and federal marine law enforcement officers on the water nationwide prior to the July 4th holiday to give BUI enforcement high visibility during the peak boating season. 

For more information, visit www.operationdrywater.org or the DEEP website at www.ct.gov/deep/enconpolice.