State law tightens limits for drinking and boating

The coming Memorial Day weekend marks the unofficial start of summer but also of Michigan's boating season.

For holiday revelers who take to the water while drinking alcohol, marine officers warn that this year brings a stricter law in Michigan regarding what constitutes drunken boating. It now matches drunken driving.

The threshold for being intoxicated at the helm dropped from 0.10 blood-alcohol level to 0.08, said Macomb County Sheriff Anthony Wickersham.

"We feel if somebody can't operate a motor vehicle at 0.08 (or above), can we say it's OK to operate a boat?" Wickersham said.

And, as about 5,000 seventh-graders in Macomb County learned over the winter, any boater on Michigan waters "has consented to alcohol testing if arrested by law enforcement officials," according to the Michigan Boating Certification Exam.

The Macomb youths who received a perfect score on the challenging, 60-question exam were awarded field trips this week to the county's marine division docks in Harrison Township, on Lake St. Clair at the mouth of the Clinton River.

As part of Safe Boating Week, which ends today, "We take them for a short boat ride on the lake and then they come in for hot dogs and chips," Wickersham said. He said he planned to be at the county's docks today for the last day of rides for the students, who are from public and parochial schools.

Macomb County's marine division has four year-round personnel but doubles that staff for summer patrols on Lake St. Clair, then adds 90 non-paid reservists to boost their presence, according to spokesman Lt. John Michalke. Last year, the marine division staff had 18 search-and-rescue missions, 32 general assist calls and more than 1,900 "contacts" with boaters, Michalke said.

Heavy drinking is a top cause of boating accidents and drownings, coupled with failure to wear life jackets, but among other cardinal errors is improper anchoring.

"A lot of people try to anchor their boat from the stern" — making the boat unstable, especially when the operator starts retrieving the anchor, marine division Deputy Bill Willhite said.

"We've had some fatalities from that," Willhite said.

When officers on a county patrol boat see a boater doing something stupid, "a lot of times we'll just stop and talk to the people because, from the sheriff on down, our emphasis is on education over enforcement," he said.

"But if they're inebriated, they're getting more than a ticket. They're going to jail," Willhite said.

Contact Bill Laitner: blaitner@freepress.com or 313-223-4485.