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10A I DAWSON COUNTY NEWS I dawsonnews.com
Wednesday, July 24,2019
Is Lake Lanier really a safe place to be?
By Kelsey Richardson
DCN Regional Staff
Each year Lake Lanier collects
more names on its list of drown-
ings and boating fatalities.
With 11.8 million visitors annu
ally, according to the Army Corps
of Engineers, Lanier holds the title
of Georgia’s most popular lake.
Population size factors into the
deadly reputation of the lake that
dominates other frequently visited
lakes like Alatoona, Oconee and
Sinclair when it comes to deaths.
The Law Enforcement Division
of the Georgia Department of
Natural Resources keeps tabs on
all of its major lakes, providing
public access to the number of
boating fatalities, drownings, boat
ing incidents and boating under the
influence cases.
The department reported a total
of 145 drownings and 57 boating
fatalities at Lanier from 1999-
2018. Boating fatalities may
include drownings, but only in
connection with a moving boat.
Lake Lanier had two boating
fatalities in 2015, eight in 2016,
two in 2017 and two in 2018.
Seven drownings took place on
Lanier in 2015, nine in 2016, five
in 2017 and eight in 2018.
The Army Corps of Engineers
estimates that Lake Allatoona, in
northwest Georgia, hosts 7 million
people annually. Lrom 2015-2018
Allatoona has accumulated a total
of 16 lake-related deaths, com
pared to Lanier’s 43.
How locals and visitors
feel about Lanier
Richard Stever can trace his
family’s Gainesville roots back to
the 1800s. Over the 32 years he
has spent visiting Lanier, Stever
said he has never had family mem
bers or friends die on the lake.
However, this is not the case for
the number of accidents he has
witnessed.
“Lor some reason this lake
seems to claim a lot of people
every year regardless of the sea
son,” Stever said. “Lishermen have
gotten hurt, boats have been cap
sized.”
Stever remembers one person in
particular who got into a boating
accident around 10 years ago. He
said his friend was traveling on the
lake at around 60 mph and crashed
into a boat that didn’t have its
lights on.
“Nobody died or got hurt, but
this was all because of poor prac
tice in boating,” Stever said.
Lrom 2015-2018, Georgia DNR
reported a total of 128 boating inci
dents. During the same span
Allatoona had 66 boating inci
dents, Oconee had 19 and Sinclair
had 16. Both Lake Oconee and
Sinclair don’t have visitor centers,
making it difficult to track the
amount of lake-goers.
Jay Weems, Georgia Power’s
land management specialist for
Lake Sinclair, said he estimates
that around 8,000 people live
around Sinclair and 5,000 reside
around Oconee.
Hannah Wilcher, executive
director of Visit Lake Oconee, said
Oconee is the second largest lake
next to 38,000-acre Lanier, cover
ing 19,000 acres. While incidents
do happen on Oconee, Wilcher
said it’s not to the same scale as
Lanier.
“One thing that makes us differ
ent from Lake Lanier is that we
never feel overcrowded,” she said.
“It does feel safer out here and
there’s not a ton of boats backed up
on the water.”
During a typical week, Kim
Martin, day camp director at Lake
Lanier Canoe Kayak Club, can
usually be found on the lake or
near it. LCKC is located at the
Lake Lanier Olympic Park on the
north end of the lake near the
mouth of the Chattahoochee River.
When she married her husband 27
years ago, the two lived on a sail
boat for a year at Aqualand Marina
on Lanier.
Martin has held water sports-
related jobs, including working as
the aquatics director of the
University of North Georgia, for
47 years. Both of her children have
served on LCKC’s national teams.
She describes her time on Lanier
as “magical and phenomenal.”
“They’ve (club members) been
racing and had some boats come in
at high speeds, but for the most
part, they feel safe here,” Martin
said. “Most people are very consci
entious and courteous out here on
the lake.”
Ben Barnes, who is training with
the LCKC high performance team,
spends three hours on the lake
every day. He traveled from Wake
Lorest University to undergo train
ing for nationals during the sum
mer.
Before he visited the lake,
Barnes said he had heard stories
about the lives it claims every year.
However, after a couple of months
on Lanier, his worries went away.
“Boats come through all the
time, and I haven’t had an inci
dent,” Barnes said. “I feel super
safe on the lake, there’s nothing
wrong with it. I haven’t seen any
thing or witnessed anything.”
If only they had
a life jacket
Life jackets might not be the
most fashionable attire on the lake.
But, they can be the determining
factor between life and death.
Eight drownings and two boat
ing fatalities have taken place this
year on Lake Lanier, according to
Mark McKinnon, Georgia DNR’s
public affairs officer for the Law
Enforcement Division.
Two recent incidents occurred
back-to-back, in less than 24 hours
on Memorial Day weekend.
The body of 30-year-old
Reginald Whitehead of Perry was
located around 10:45 p.m. on May
25, at Shoal Creek Park, followed
by 61-year-old Michael Thompson
just after midnight, near his boat
dock in the 5400 block of Pine
Lorest Road.
Capt. Brad Rounds oversees
Hall County’s Marine Patrol
Division, which was recently
placed under the Uniform Patrol
Division. He said one of the most
common trends he finds with lake
deaths involves the victim’s lack of
a life jacket. Whitehead was
reported by authorities as not wear
ing a personal flotation device and
unable to swim.
“If you don’t know how to
swim, please always wear a life
jacket,” Rounds said. “We
wouldn’t be dealing with this
many drownings if they just put on
a lifejacket.”
Rounds said keeping Lanier safe
is a group effort with his team,
Georgia DNR, U.S. Army Corps
of Engineers and Hall County Lire
Services.
With the warmer months in full
swing, marine patrol deputies have
ramped up their presence on the
lake.
“Many people think that they’re
just out on a boat on the lake, but
there’s a lot more to it,” Rounds
said. “There’s so much traffic. We
have a lot of the same calls on the
street and water.”
Rounds, who spent nine years
on the Hall County Sheriff’s Office
dive team, describes the group as a
recovery team, not a rescue team.
Hall County Lire Services’ takes
the role as the rescue team, arriving
at a drowning scene as soon as
possible. The Sheriff’s Office dep
uties deal mostly with recovering
the body.
Water and alcohol, a
deadly mixture
If a person chooses to con
sume alcohol while out on the
lake, Rounds recommends hav
ing a designated driver.
“When you compound it with
alcohol, it’s a deadly mixture,”
he said.
Lrom 2015-2018, Georgia
DNR estimates 214 incidents of
boating under the influence on
Lanier. During the same time
frame, Allatoona had 121 boating
under the influence cases, Oconee
had 40 and Sinclair had eight.
Martin said she has lots of
discussions with her day camp
members about safety and not
boating when people are drink
ing alcohol or swimming when
others are using drugs. Her
campers range from age 7-12.
“Education around water is
such a big thing,” Martin said.
“There are so many drownings,
and those are preventable.”
Protecting children from
the silent killer
Shannon Parris, aquatics manag
er at the Trances Meadows Aquatic
Center in Gainesville, oversees the
facility’s lifeguards in addition to
her other duties.
She compares drowning victims
to those who undergo a heart
attack.
“Not everyone experiences it the
same way, and it’s kind of the
same for drowning,” Parris said.
“There can be a swimmer who
doesn’t appear to be struggling, but
unfortunately they turn to breathe
and there’s a wall of water from
other activity going on. All of a
sudden they’ve gone to the bottom
or have stopped moving.”
Not all drownings happen in
silence. The typical movie scene of
someone flailing and screaming
could also occur. Parris said the
way someone drowns depends on
how and why they began intaking
water.
A mistake she said adults often
make involves thinking shallow
water is safe.
“Unfortunately this isn’t always
the situation,” she said. “Just
because they can touch the bottom,
they can still slip and drown.”
Lor parents with children, she
encourages them to always remain
vigilant because “kids can move
especially fast.” She recommends
staying at an arm’s length.
A 10-year-old Hoschton boy
was declared dead on Wednesday,
July 17, after being pulled from
Lanier near Margaritaville on July
11. His 30-year-old father died one
day later. DNR Maj. Mike
England identified the boy as
Ethan Chen and the father as Libao
Chen.
Capt. Zachary Brackett wrote
that the father went under the water
to look for Ethan, after noticing
that his son had not surfaced.
The incident is still under inves
tigation from Georgia DNR.
Martin said she teaches parents
about their role in watching chil
dren on the lake.
“You can’t pick up a book, you
can’t be grilling burgers, you can’t
be doing anything,” she said. “You
need to be watching your children
on the water and doing nothing
else.”
Parris has only worked at pools,
never in open waters.
“I have saved people not to the
point where they need CPR,” she
said. “People that, no pun intend
ed, got in over their head.”
The best advice she would give
someone who spots a potential
drowning victim includes “reach
and throw, don’t go.”
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