South Dakota Officers Checked 1,000 Boats And Charged 11 With Boating While Intoxicated

Every month across South Dakota, the Highway Patrol and local law enforcement agencies roll out a series of sobriety checkpoints in the hopes of curbing the number of impaired drivers on the state's roads.

READ MORE: South Dakota Sobriety Checkpoints Are Coming To 12 Counties This August

But the crackdowns aren't just limited to the Mount Rushmore State's highways and byways.

Over the Fourth of July weekend, the South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks Department deployed 69 conservation officers for enhanced patrols, conducting 36 enforcement operations on lakes and rivers statewide as part of the national Operation Dry Water campaign.

Numbers released Friday (August 21) show that during the three-day effort, officers checked more than 1,000 vessels and made contact with nearly 3,800 boaters. In all,  11 people were charged with operating a boat while intoxicated. Also, officers issued 74 citations and 195 warnings, while also addressing more than 100 non-boating violations.

According to the United States Coast Guard, about half of all boating accidents involve drugs or alcohol. with more than 60,000 non-fatal boating accidents in America each year, with property damage well over $240 million annually.

Over the years, boating accidents have claimed more than 800 lives, more than in airplane or train accidents.

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