Erik D. Jones’s Blog

Lake County Sheriff’s officers setup the County’s first ever boating under the influence (BUI) checkpoint on Saturday from 2pm to 6pm on Clear Lake.  BUI limits are the same for those for Class C (most automobile) driver’s license holders in California, a blood-alcohol level (BAC) of 0.08.  Buoys were setup to indicate two warning zones of entry.  If a boat passed the first warning zone and turned around, they were not pursued.  If, however, they passed the second warning zone, they were approached by a sheriff’s vessel and escorted to one of 5 BUI checkpoint boats.

Officers said that they looked for signs of intoxication such as open containers (which are legal on boats) and slurred or impaired speech by the driver.  Upon suspicion, the driver was assisted onto the inspection boat and given a seated field sobriety test.  If suspicion continued, the driver was given the option of a blood or breath test ashore.  While the officers did issue two citations, neither was for BUI laws but for other boating infractions.

Opinion:

While I feel that in general those of us with sailboats tend to exercise a lot more care on our vessels, I think this is a terrific idea for users of motor boats.  Most of the accidents that I have seen, heard about or read have involved motor boats (typically “ski” or “speed” boats).  For areas like the Sacramento delta, river and lakes like Clear Lake, I think this is long overdue.  I hope to see more of this in the future.