Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Be Careful On Road

Labor Day, the traditional windup of the vacations season, should not include drinking and driving, either on the water or on the highway, said officials of the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission and the Harbor Hero program.

Harbor Hero is a part of the Arkansas Designated Driver-Highway Hero Program and is operated in cooperation with the Game and Fish Commission.

M.H. `Butch' Potts, boating safety coordinator for the Commission, said, "We're reminding Arkansans and tourists in our state that alcohol is involved in a majority of all boating deaths. Accidents on the state's waterways are about the same level as in 1996, but still far ahead of earlier years. And that's not good.

"Laws enacted in 1995 make the fines and punishment for operating watercraft under the influence of alcohol as stringent as those for operating a motor vehicle under the influence," he said.

So far in 1997, 80 Arkansas boating accidents have resulted in 11 deaths and 63 injuries.

"The Harbor Hero program is a public campaign designed to raise awareness of alcohol-related accidents on the state's waterways," Potts continued. "The program distributes news release through the Arkansas Press Association and Arkansas Broadcasters Association."

"We hope our efforts remind boaters that using alcohol while operating boats can have deadly results," Robert Stebbins, chairman of the program, said.