When boaters on Horne Lake saw the RCMP boat zeroing in, they couldn’t know they were about to get a break.
That’s what happened, though, when the Oceanside RCMP and South Island Integrated Marine Unit (SIIMU) kicked off the boating season by making patrols on Horne Lake over the Victoria Day long weekend.
The patrols focused on education and enforcement and marked the start of an Oceanside RCMP initiative to keep local waterways safe.
Corporal Jesse Foreman said in total there were over 20 written warnings and several violation tickets issued for things that could not be overlooked. These included not having enough life jackets in the vessel and not possessing a Pleasure Craft Operator Card (PCOC).
“The RCMP’s vision is to eliminate senseless and preventable deaths on our waterways by developing effective strategies through education, enforcement and partnerships with communities and other agencies,” Foreman said. “The majority of accidents are caused by the boat operator and not by mechanical or equipment failure or environmental causes. Human carelessness and failure to keep a proper lookout are the two primary causes of boating accidents.”
Foreman added that sharing responsibility for safe boating can help reduce the more than 100 recreation boating fatalities that occur on Canadian waterways ever year.