WAAY 31 spoke with Alabama Law Enforcement Agency officials, and they told us they’re cracking down this Fourth of July weekend, keeping a close eye on impaired or distracted boaters.
ALEA says they will be increasing patrols over the holiday weekend. Their goal is to have as many officers as possible visible and active on the water. They say the Fourth of July is one of the busiest weekends of the year and unfortunately, it’s also when they see a rise in boating crashes. Many of those crashes, they say, are due to operator inattention, distracted boating, or impaired driving.
ALEA Corporal at the Department of Public Safety Marine Patrol Division Chad Dyer said, “We want to make sure that nobody is operating their boat impaired by either alcohol or drugs. We want to make sure that whoever is driving the boat is sober and operating safely because as a captain of the boat, you are responsible for the people on board your boat so we want to make sure that we have someone responsible at the helm who’s being able to take control of the boat, operate the boat in a safe manner.”…