Chippewa Falls (WQOW) - Boaters on Wisconsin
waterways may notice extra security sharing the waves with them this weekend. A
national program called Operation Dry Water began Friday. The goal of the
program is to spread awareness on the dangers of boating while intoxicated.
"It's just to bring attention to alcohol use by
boaters and by other people who are out on the waterways," said Chippewa County Deputy Sheriff Darin Williams.
This weekend, the Chippewa County
Sheriff's Department is participating in a national program aimed at cracking
down on impaired boaters. Williams patrolled Lake Wissota
on Saturday.
"What we're looking
for is just people to be safe. If we see any unsafe boat operation or just
unsafe water activities, we'll make contact with the people there and kind of
inform them of the unsafe practices. If the operators happen to be showing some
impairment and unsafe actions going on there we'll continue to investigate it a
little bit further," Williams said.
"Some people just
need to realize that they need to be responsible when they're having their time
off. And we have a lot of crashes both locally and nationwide attributed to
alcohol, and also speed. But in particular alcohol," said Williams.
This is just Williams' second time
participating in operation dry water.
"Unfortunately last
year in Chippewa County, we had a lot of boat crashes. It
seemed like every other weekend we had a boat crash. We unfortunately had six
people die on our waterways last year, and alcohol use was related in a lot of
those. So what we're trying to do is just get the word out, get awareness to
it, and hopefully help some voluntary compliance occur," Williams said.
