Boating While Intoxicated

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Robert Thomas

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A guy on the river yesterday got arrested for BWI in a kayak. Never heard of that before. Doubt that you could kill or injure anyone besides yourself.
 
I've heard of people getting BWI in motorized boats but never a muscle powered boat.
 
The sober powerboaters here are worse than the inebriated boaters.



There as a case against a state rep in my state who was "intoxicated" while boating and had his boat rammed by another boater who was not intoxicated. :angry:



I'm leery of any sort of "BWI" charge but I really don't see why a guy in a kayak should be charged.
 
Got pulled and sobriety tested while fishing from my kayak. We had 2 beers each in 4 hours and blew a .028.



Guess the bunny cops were bored or something.
 
I remember one from a couple years ago where a guy was charged with OUI on a riding lawnmower while mowing his own lawn...
 
My town is on the river and I have a jetski. PA Fish & Boat Commission watches real careful and they're sneaky about it. Dude will sit on a chair near the launch ramp with a fishing rod that has no line and radio to the patrol boat on the river. I've seen them on the road above the ramp in their state Jeep with a handy-dandy binocular mount on the drivers door window, watching for people who are drinking and boating.
 
JohnnyO...whatcha riding?



I just came back from a week on Sanibel island, FL and put about 150 miles on my Seadoo.
 
Why not, Walk down the street drunk, Get a ticket or arrested.



Out on any boat, you can harm yourself or others.



Todd Z
 
I'd appreciate it if the cops didn't try to protect me from myself or that kayaker from himself.



I'd also appreciate it if the boat cops would stop going after the low-hanging fruit of people knocking back a cold one while boating and went after actual crime.



How do the cops know if a boater is over the legal limit before they forcibly stop his vessel and test him? In my experience aggressive/erratic boating occurs here even when the pilots are sober :bwahaha:
 
Sorry, I could not provide more information. I performed boat patrol for over 20 years and had never heard of such a case. I see that most seem to blame the incident on the officer. In retrospect I can think of a few instances where the individual should have been charged. FL law is pretty unforgiving in BWI law. They can basically stop and test you at any time, it's not the same as DUI. I do know the guy blew .11, the legal limit is .08.
 
I don't see the problem with the ticket. If the guy would've capsized and drown due to being too drunk to operate, he could've put someone else's life at risk and there also could've been a substantial amount of money and resources to find his body if he did drown.
 
The ticket doesn't accomplish anything useful though. It didn't stop him from boating while inebriated and all the tickets given to other people before him didn't stop him. He could have killed himself due to inebriation before the cops got to him.



All it does is give the cops a cash infusion, which is (I suspect) a large reason why my state talks about lowering the already-arbitrary 0.08 limit down to a more-arbitrary 0.06 or lower.

he could've put someone else's life at risk and there also could've been a substantial amount of money and resources to find his body if he did drown.
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This could all happen had the boater been sober. Maybe the water cops should fine everyone for boating in any capacity because they could drown and lead to an expensive body search...never mind that the boaters likely paid taxes for that purpose already.



" I do know the guy blew .11, the legal limit is .08."

...that's 0.03 over the limit. I wouldn't bet that was even enough to get him truly buzzed.
 
KL



Thanks for the new and previously unconsidered aspects of enforcement of BWI laws.



I guess :haveabeer::haveabeer: is appropriate. I have two kayaks if you wish to visit the river.



Bob
 
I wish that I still had a kayak lol. Carrying it in the bed of the ST was always a bit awkward though.



I don't think that I could drink and kayak at the same time. I'm not even sure that I could kayak after drinking-I'd have capsized before the floating fuzz could "get" me-which is why I'm fascinated with this story to being with :grin:



:bwahaha:
 
The ticket doesn't accomplish anything useful though. It didn't stop him from boating while inebriated and all the tickets given to other people before him didn't stop him. He could have killed himself due to inebriation before the cops got to him.



All it does is give the cops a cash infusion, which is (I suspect) a large reason why my state talks about lowering the already-arbitrary 0.08 limit down to a more-arbitrary 0.06 or lower.
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KL, just curious--all those same statements can also be made about driving a car drunk. Do you feel the same about enforcement of those laws?
 
KL the odds of a drunk kayaker drowning vs a sober one is probably a lot higher though. I guess we also don't know more of the specifics of the exact case that Redfish is talking about. Maybe the guy was beligerent and swearing at people and causing a distrubance as well.
 
Where I live there's a river that feeds from the bottom of the dam from a large lake. The water is always very cold. There's a couple of outfits that rent kayaks and tubes for going down the river for about a 2 hour ride. A lot of people are also out there on their own equipment. There's a couple of rapids that can toss you, but I've never been tossed out. You get out at a public park.



The county police patrol the river, and can sometimes be seen out there, but not every day. There may be rangers too, I don't know. They mainly give out underage drinking tickets to teens and college kids. As long as you are not raising too much hell, they leave you alone. If you are seen littering, which is what the underagers do a lot of so they don't have to go ashore with a bunch of incriminating empties, you'll get their attention too. The litter is what the public mostly complains about.



All of this is hearsay from asking around what the deal is with drinking on the river. I don't know the official policies, but I've gotten out of the river with a cooler of empties after floating on a tube, and walked past an officer who was at the ramp/stairs where we got out. He said "Hello." I didn't want to discuss the drinking policy with him that day. My cooler was closed, so we practiced the "don't ask, don't tell" routine.



I now live on the lake, and had no clue I could get pulled over for BWI on my kayak. I will definitely find out. There are county police and rangers (Department of Natural Resources) patrolling the lake, so I'll ask both.
 
Do you feel the same about enforcement of those laws?
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That sounds like a loaded question to me.



That said, considering my experience with what the local government call "enforcement" of those laws (repeat offenders walk free after fines & perfunctory court dates, traffic gridlocking "checkpoints" that are illogically placed and border on harassment, working against alternatives to DWI which is almost entrapment and defining the "legal limit" as a loosely-defined and arbitrary number) I'm almost inclined to say "yes" to your loaded question as it stands. :rofl:









 
Water, land or air......... Operating a vehicle of any type and drinking are a huge problem in this country.

Obviously auto's and boats are more of an issue.

DWI & DUI are totally unacceptable and if you are pulled over and inconvieneced for a few minutes, get over it as the next person maybe drunk and kill you.



 

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