For many Drumheller residents, a fun activity this summer will be to float on the river, but residents are reminded to use proper safety items.
Jeff Zimmer, district fish and wildlife officer for Drumheller wants to remind residents that even if they are travelling the river this summer in a rubber dingy, they still need to have the proper safety items on board.
Those travelling on the river in a watercraft, of any sort, are required to have the same amount of life jackets as people on board, and a whistle.
“This is just a gentle reminder for people that this is the minimum requirements they need,” Zimmer said.
“This seems simple enough, but 90 per cent of people who we check don’t have any of that stuff. In fact the cooler full of beer is more important than the life jacket,” he told inSide Drumheller adding that having alcohol of any type is illegal. “There is this misconception that while we can stand up pretty much anywhere out here that it’s not a danger, but it is the law,” he said.
Zimmer also mentioned that for those people looking to purchase or have purchased a boat this summer and want to use it on the river, there are a few requirements above and beyond the life jackets and a whistle.
“It’s not as simple as buying a boat, throwing it in the river and away you go. You need an operators license, you need to have the boat registered, and then of course there is all the safety equipment needed in the boat,” he said.
If anyone on the river, in a water craft or boat, are caught without a life jacket, the fines start at $200 for not having a life jacket available, Zimmer said. If it is a boat situation, it is $200 plus $100 for each life jacket they are missing, using the example that if there are five passengers on the boat and no life jackets that is a $700 fine that could be avoided.
Although he encourages boaters and their passengers to wear the life jackets over the age of 16, there is no requirement to do so, he said, they just have to be “readily available” and not stuffed under the bow or under the seats.
“When we do safety checks I always run this scenario past (people). ‘OK, your boat is swamped, grab your life jackets,’ and all of a sudden they are digging and saying ‘where did I put them again?’ Sometimes it takes them five minutes to find two life jackets.
Zimmer also wants to remind residents of the importance of supervision of children near the riverbanks.
“People don’t realize how dangerous that water could be. Yes, it looks slow moving and not very deep but you don’t know what dangers lurk below,” he said.
