Going Coastal

This is the weekend that boat lovers get their craft into the waters off Long Island.

That’s why state park officials, the U.S. Coast Guard and the National Transportation Safety Board on Friday kicked off National Safe Boating Week with a news conference at Captree State Park in West Islip.

Officials want to remind New York’s 500,000 registered power boat operators, and tens of thousand of manually and sail-powered boaters, to be safe while enjoying the water.

While the waterways around Long Island are beautiful, they can also be unforgiving if a boat capsized – a “sudden immersion” as experts, like Adm. Tim Sullivan of the Coast Guard, call it.

Wearing a life jacket while on the water is the first safety step. “It might give you a fighting chance,” Sullivan said.

Eighty percent of the fatalities involving boaters in the state were people who weren’t wearing a life jacket, according to the State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation.

With water temperatures in the high 40s or low 50s, “The cold water does kill,” Sullivan said.

In Nassau County, there were 28 boat collisions and one fatality last year. The death involved a commercial barge that hit a recreation boat off Kings Point on Long Island Sound. The victim wasn’t wearing a life jacket, said Insp. Allen McGovern of the Nassau County Police Marine Bureau. There were nearly 50 collisions on Nassau County waterways in 2006, without any fatalities.

In Suffolk County, there were 68 collisions and three fatalities last year, up from 49 crashes and two fatalities in 2006, Suffolk police said.

William Gossard, a transportation safety advocate with the National Transportation Safety Board, said the use of a life jacket “can make a difference.” More than 700 people nationwide died in boating accidents in 2006, he said.

A life jacket safely secured in the boat “won’t do you any good” if you end up in the water, Gossard said. Boaters have to wear it.

STAYING SAFE

National Safe Boating Week continues through May 23, the traditional start of the recreational boating season in New York. A few safe practices for responsible boating:

Wear a life jacket

Complete a boating safety course

Maintain a prudent speed

Help other boaters in distress

Don’t mix alcohol with boating

Source: New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation