Avoid alcohol and always wear a life jacket while boating, said Gov. Juan N. Babauta yesterday as he signed the proclamation declaring Aug. 23 to 29 as CNMI Boating Safety Week. <\/p>\n
\u201cA life jacket worn while boating is just as important as a seat belt worn in a car\u2014it can save your life,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
A very dangerous practice among many boaters, he said, is consuming alcohol while piloting their vessels.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust as it is reckless to drive on the roads while intoxicated, it is even more dangerous to operate a boat while under the influence of alcohol,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Babauta said that statistics show that a great majority of deaths occurring in recreational boating have been alcohol-related. Between 700 to 800 people die each year on boating-related accidents in the CNMI, and nearly 70 percent of these are fatalities caused by drowning, he added.<\/p>\n
\u201cHuman error or poor judgment causes the vast majority of these accidents. A significant number of boaters who lose their lives by drowning each would be alive today had they worn their life jackets,\u201d he said in the proclamation.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is up to us to do our part to be \u2018boat smart\u2019 and keep our NMI waters safe for everyone,\u201d he added. <\/p>\n
Yesterday\u2019s signing was attended by Department of Public Safety commissioner Ed Camacho, DPS spokesman and Boating Safety director Capt. Pete Muna, Boating Safety personnel, as well as attorney general Pamela Brown, and deputy attorney general Clyde Lemons Jr.<\/p>\n
Right now, DPS Boating Safety uses three boats for rescue operations.<\/p>\n
Camacho said two more boats will be made available to boost the team\u2019s search and rescue operations.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s more for Boating and Safety. It\u2019s a priority,\u201d said Camacho.<\/p>\n
Including Muna, the Boating and Safety Division consists of six personnel. (Liberty Dones)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Avoid alcohol and always wear a life jacket while boating, said Gov. Juan N. Babauta yesterday as he signed the proclamation declaring Aug. 23 to 29 as CNMI Boating Safety Week. <\/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-83444","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\/83444","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=83444"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83444\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83444"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83444"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83444"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}