The Department of Public Safety\u2019s Boating Safety Section on Saipan is understaffed as it has only eight officers, including the commander.<\/p>\n
In an interview with Saipan Tribune, BSS commander Sgt. Juan D. Diaz said they should have 15 staff members to be more efficient in providing services to the community.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I know I\u2019m not going to get the 15 manpower because the patrol [section] is also really hurting,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Diaz assured, though, that, despite having only eight personnel, they are still managing to perform their duties. <\/p>\n
\u201cBut in reality it\u2019s not enough,\u201d he pointed out.<\/p>\n
With respect to their equipment, the BSS commander said they don\u2019t have any problem.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur rescue boats [and] the equipment on the boats are new. Our one rescue boat was repaired after the fire [incident at their facility] and we had it repaired. So everything now is in working condition,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Diaz said the only minor problem is that one of their jet skis has an engine trouble.<\/p>\n
The administration proclaimed Dec. 4 to 8 as Boating Safety Week.<\/p>\n
Last year, Boating Safety officers responded to three jet ski accidents, one jet ski-vessel accident, three capsized jet ski, two sunken jet ski, three vessels that ran aground, four capsized vessels, four sunken vessels, two stranded kayaks, and two banana boat accidents.<\/p>\n
The officers also responded to three open water drowning cases, one stranded fisherman, one stranded diver, and two stranded surfers.<\/p>\n
BSS noted that there were less distress boat reports, fewer vessel accidents, and no boat accident-related fatality so far this year, compared to the previous two years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Department of Public Safety\u2019s Boating Safety Section on Saipan is understaffed as it has only eight officers, including the commander.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-106767","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106767","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=106767"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106767\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=106767"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=106767"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=106767"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}