STORM2K

Frisco woman's death on Mother's Day highlights need for precautions

By KIMBERLY DURNAN / The Dallas Morning News

Experts say the victim of a recent fatal accident at Lake Lewisville violated several common boating safety tenets: she was among four people on a personal watercraft built for two; she apparently was not a strong swimmer; and she was riding without a life jacket.

Maria Lopez, who was identified by the Dallas County medical examiner’s office as a 30-year-old Frisco woman, drowned after she was thrown off a personal watercraft Sunday during a Mother’s Day picnic at Stewart Lake Park. The Colony Fire Department originally identified the victim as a 35-year-old Princeton woman.

Ms. Lopez’s boyfriend was steering the two-seat WaveRunner carrying her and her two daughters, said Assistant Fire Chief Van Weese of The Colony Fire Department.

“They kind of turned and she flipped off of it,” Chief Weese said.

A witness said Ms. Lopez lifted her daughters to safety and then sank. Divers pulled her body from an inlet about an hour later.

Ms. Lopez’s death marks the third fatality involving personal watercraft in North Texas in eight years. In 2005, 14-year-old Sally Ann Smitham of University Park was killed in a collision on Cedar Creek Lake in Henderson County. In 1998, Plano resident Deborah Boles, 16, was killed on Lake Texoma when a personal watercraft that her friend was riding crashed into hers.

According to U.S. Coast Guard statistics for 2004, the most recent year available, there were 56 deaths and 952 injuries nationwide involving personal watercraft, accounting for more than 28 percent of 3,363 U.S. boating-related injuries. About 90 percent of the U.S. drowning victims were not wearing life jackets, according to the data.

As North Texas weather gets warmer, people should start thinking about keeping themselves and their children safe at the pool or lake, said Anita Foster, spokeswoman for the American Red Cross.

“Anytime we are on the water – adults or children – you should have a Coast Guard-approved life jacket,” Ms. Foster said. “Don’t overload the number of people in your boat. Also, we encourage people not to drink at all while they are out boating.”

Swimming proficiency is vital, Ms. Foster added. Local American Red Cross chapters offer swim instruction for adults and children of all abilities.

People should pay particularly close attention to their children while they swim or play in water, she said.

“You can’t take your eyes off your children,” she said. “We have this impression from television that when people drown they flail their arms and scream for help and that’s not the case. Drowning can be silent. It can take less than a minute. Children sink to the bottom without making any sound.”

Wayne Spivak, a spokesman for the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary, suggested that anyone who plans to operate a personal watercraft or larger boat take a boating safety course – and use common sense.

“Don’t jump the wakes, because you lose control of the jet ski,” he said. “If you can’t control the vessel, you can hit the water on any conceivable angle and flip over.”

Garry Collins, captain game warden for the Garland district of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, said alcohol also plays a role in the number of water accidents. He said when alcohol is available at bars or restaurants right on the lake, like several establishments on lakes Lewisville and Texoma, the number of incidents goes up.

“You can drive up a boat and go in, drink a little bit and then go out on the boat some more,” he said. "Two drinks inhibit your reaction process when driving a car, and I know that goes up on the water."

Miss Boles’ mother, Nita Boles, became one of the founders of the Coalition of Parents and Families for Personal Watercraft Safety in January 2000. The group is pushing for more regulations involving the craft, including a minimum operator age of 16, better public awareness of the dangers involved and better warning labels from manufacturers.

In a recent statement, the group said it had made little progress in efforts to tighten regulations on personal watercraft. The group is pressuring the Personal Watercraft Industry Association, the dominant trade group, to implement design changes that focus on safety over speed.

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent ... 282a1.html
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TIPS FOR STAYING SAFE

General safety tips for water activities:

•Learn to swim

•Know local laws and regulations

•Use U.S. Coast Guard-approved personal flotation devices whenever in or around the water.

•If you own a pool, keep a first aid kit, cordless phone, emergency contact phone numbers, a reaching pole and a ring buoy with a line attached nearby.

•Obey “no diving” signs

•Don’t drink alcohol

•Use sunscreen, sunglasses and a hat to prevent sunburn

•Keep track of local weather conditions

•Learn CPR

•When using personal watercraft, ride with a buddy and operate at slow speeds around swimmers and surfers

Source: American Red Cross
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ONLINE RESOURCES

American Red Cross: http://www.redcross.com

Coalition of Parents and Families for Personal Watercraft Safety: http://www.pwcwatch.org

U.S. Coast Guard Office of Boating Safety: http://www.uscgboating.org

Texas Parks and Wildlife Water Safety Digest: http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/publication ... ndex.phtml

I believe that a bunch of the problems arise from parents who teach young children to disobey the rules--not directly, of course--but by applauding daredevil actions, not enforcing rules to WEAR life preservers, not wearing them themselves, drinking on their boats, and generally doing stupid stuff where their kids can see them.

What happens is that parents who enforce wearing life preservers on boats, who don't swill beer on boats, who don't swim alone, don't dive where "no diving" is posted (even if they think they "could") etc. are seen as oddballs, crunchy granolas, stick-in-the-mud meanies--not only by other kids, but by their parents...

No wonder teenagers and young adults don't obey the common-sense rules--at least until they get old enough to have some of their college buddies drown, until they have children themselves, etc.

There is a tremendous amount of peer pressure to act like an idiot around water. Sadly, lots die unnecessarily.

I might add to the Red Cross Rules "don't overload the boat." I'm amazed when I see photos where there are far more people on a boat than it was designed to hold safely--especially when there is no good reason. I can understand it when people are being rescued and you weigh the danger of overloading the boat with leaving someone to drown because you won't be able to go back for them--but when people are just out on a recreational outing, there is no excuse for 5 people in a 2 person canoe, etc.

Unfortunately parents often don't pay attention until tragedy strikes... If you are reading this, think carefully about what your actions and example say to the children you may be around. As a grandmother, and as a pretty good swimmer, I am aware of my ability to "do stuff" that is not safe. For example, pools that had diving boards in my childhood now have no diving boards and are posted "no diving." In a few cases the pools are the same pools and you can see where the boards are removed. I "know" that I can dive in those pools because I have done so. But I do NOT do it because of the bad example it sets.

My own mother set a horrible example... she had no sense of safety. Perhaps if she had not been bad in other ways, I would not have noticed this. But she not only let us do all sorts of dangerous stuff, but actually encouraged it. And I felt the pressure when I had my own child and modeled as well as talked "water safety" to my child. There was a lot of "oh, come on... we all know you can do it." I guess it's the same thing that makes some people try to get alcoholics to "have a beer."

So please think about the message you really give children, grandchildren, etc. Even other people's children who look up to you as a role model. Don't model stupid or dangerous behavior.