Ready to enjoy water around Vero Beach, Stuart, St. Lucie, Sebastian, Florida? Beware

Editorial Board

Memorial Day weekend is here, the unofficial official start of the summer boating season. It's also time for parents to be vigilant about how their teens will spend their free time this summer.

Many will go to sports camps. Others will be involved in planned and pre-scheduled activities. Some will hang around the house splitting time between Xbox, PS5 and Twitch. Regardless, the 2024-2025 school year is only a couple of short months away, making the summer way too short.

For teens and their friends who have access to powerboats, Treasure Coast parents must be extra careful when granting permission for water-skiing, wakeboarding, fishing or joy riding. One well-intended adventure can quickly turn to tragedy within a few irreversible seconds. Accident victims' parents are left wishing for a time machine to wind back the clock to the moment when they could keep their kids out of harm's way.

Martin County Sheriff’s officials in a boat on Tuesday May 7, 2024, in the St. Lucie River just west of Kanner Highway and just south of Cove Road. Several hours earlier a vehicle reportedly stolen out of Boynton Beach crashed in the waterway. One body was removed from the submerged vehicle, two people were taken into custody and another person is unaccounted for.

Safe Boating Week May 18-24 precedes Memorial Day annually to remind boaters across the country to be safe when operating a vessel. In 2022, the most recent year national statistics are available from the U.S. Coast Guard, these numbers stand out:

  • 636 fatalities

  • 88 fatalities involved alcohol use

  • 75% drowned

  • 85% of people who drowned were not wearing life jackets

In Florida, boaters can obtain their Boating Safety Education ID Card as young as 10 years old. Many boat-owning parents understand the connection between a safe boating education and their children returning from the water. But many parents need to extend their vigilance one more step — know where your children are and what their plans entail.

It's a statewide issue, with more than 1 million vessels registered in Florida for the third consecutive year and more than 40,000 in the Treasure Coast's three coastal counties.

In most boating mishaps, lives are not lost. However, the most common type of boating accident resulting in a fatality — 16 of 56 fatal accidents — is a collision with a fixed object like a channel marker, dock, jetty, seawall or flat.

Teens will always be susceptible to lapses in judgment. But turning the keys of a vessel with a 300-horsepower Yamaha outboard requires similar responsibility and attention to one's surroundings as being behind the wheel of a 300-horsepower SUV.

We don't let teens under age 16 drive for that reason, so extra respect is required when a teen gets behind the wheel of a center console or bay boat. In the wrong hands, those vessels can kill the same way cars can.

Here are several tips to make sure your teen returns safely from a day on the water with friends:

  • A life jacket is a must. No one wants to wear one, but one can save a life.

  • Boat sober. It is illegal to operate a boat while under the influence of alcohol or drugs in every state.

  • Check weather before leaving. Check storms, tides, currents and winds. Know the vessel's limitations.

  • Have an Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon or EPIRB. It costs less than a cellphone and tells responders the boat's position via satellite.

  • File a float plan. Tell someone where you are going and when you plan to return. Include boat description and what safety equipment and passengers are on board. If plans change mid-voyage, tell someone.

  • Take a marine radio. A VHF radio is the best method of communication while on the water. Cellphones are a good backup, but sometimes unreliable because of coverage and batteries.

Training teens what to do if they run aground or out of fuel is also smart. The Treasure Coast is a great place for teens to grow up with all the clean and navigable water at their doorsteps. Fishing, wakeboarding or just cruising aboard a vessel alone or with a few friends provides wonderful memories they'll never forget.

As a parent, it's important to stress the importance of using caution on these waters. A time machine is still not available to right a boating wrong, and it can happen in an instant.

Editorials published by TCPalm/Treasure Coast Newspapers are decided collectively by its editorial board. To respond to this editorial with a letter to the editor, email up to 300 words to TCNLetters@TCPalm.com.

This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast Newspapers: Ready for water fun? So are others, with danger lurking unless ...

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