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Lake Norman patrol cracks down on dangling

McClatchy Tribune Wire Service

Published: September 18, 2009

Officers patrolling Lake Norman have cited numerous boaters this year for a little-known but potentially life-threatening infraction: Allowing their children and guests to dangle from the bow of their boats.

Several people have been seriously injured and at least one has died on the lake in recent years after wakes tossed them from the bows of boats and the boats then ran over them, police said.

"We've cracked down on it this year," Officer Doug Lambert of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department's lakes enforcement unit told the Lake Norman Marine Commission this week.

Lambert said officers issue citations for reckless boating when they see legs or arms dangling from a bow.

Officers have seen that more this year and have stepped up enforcement, Lambert said, but he didn't know how many citations have been issued.

Nate Davis, the marine commission's newly elected chairman, inquired about the citations at last week's meeting.

Davis said his 55-year-old neighbor had been cited for reckless boating, even though the boat was moving at idle speed, because his granddaughter had her legs dangling from the bow. "These tickets haven't been written in a long time," said Davis, who represents Mecklenburg County on the commission.

Lambert cited the case of a passenger who suffered serious leg injuries and was hospitalized for months after a wake knocked him from the bow of a boat near Holiday Marina in Cornelius three years ago.

The boat ran over the man when he fell off and again when it turned back to rescue him, Lambert said.

"It's called using good judgment out there," Lambert said.

A man died in the waters near the N.C. 150 bridge in 2006 after similarly being knocked off a boat, said Deputy A.L. Minton of the Catawba County sheriff's lake patrol unit.

Officers also respond to at least two cases a year of children biting their lips or tongues while on the bow of a boat when a wake hits, Minton said. "I've actually seen them flip off" into the water, he said.

Officers have witnessed so many more people dangling their legs from boats this year that they've spoken to groups of boaters at marinas, Lambert said.