Party boat to promote water safety

Party boat to promote water safety
2:29 PM CDT

02:29 PM CDT on Friday, May 18, 2007
By JAY PARSONS / The Dallas Morning News
jparsons@dallasnews.com

LEWISVILLE - Be on the lookout this summer for a new party boat cruising Lewisville Lake. A few 20-somethings will be on board, hollering for other boaters to join them in some games.

Get the right answers in Water Safety Jeopardy and win a keychain or a lifejacket or a coozie - for your soda, of course.

Texas Parks and Wildlife is launching the campaign called “Nobody’s Waterproof: Play it Safe” across area lakes this summer.

The department is using a boat donated by the Britteny Sage Lindt Fund, a nonprofit named after a 15-year-old Marcus High School cheerleader and volleyball player who was fatally run over by a boat in Lewisville Lake last August.

“It’s about saving lives,” said Tim Lindt, Britteny’s dad. “I will never stop. The laws and resources that exist today won’t get it done.”

Britteny, from Highland Village, was one of five people to die in boating accidents on Lewisville Lake last year. Statewide, 47 people died in boating accidents in 2006.

And with Memorial Day weekend expected to draw thousands of boaters to Lewisville Lake and other lakes across Texas, state officials said they are upping patrols and public awareness efforts to prevent more fatal accidents this year.

The message: Don’t drink and drive. And wear a lifejacket.

“We’re not out here to ruin anyone’s time,” game warden Ron VanderRoest said. “We just want them to play it safe. It seems to be a bad tradition that alcohol and boating go hand in hand.”