Marion County has three boats and five deputies

Marion County has three boats and five deputies. The county patrols Detroit Lake and does marine checks at Silverton Reservoir and Walter Wirth Lake in Salem.

“We try to balance our patrol focus between customer service and safety and enforcement action,” lead deputy Dave Zahn said in an email. “We make a lot of contacts with boaters, offering assistance and conducting boat safety inspections.”
Marty Law, boating safety section manager for the Oregon State Marine Board, attributes some of the improvements to improved boater education, increased use of life jackets and better engineered boats.

“We’ve had a number of accidents that could have been more tragic if people hadn’t been wearing life jackets,” Law said. “And boats are just better engineered and people are more educated.”

Still, the incidents come at a cost. Since 2005 there has been nearly $2.5 million in damages and 82 deaths.
Most incidents in Oregon occur on rivers, with 211 since 2005. The Columbia accounts for the most at 73, with the Willamette second at 48 and the Rogue third at 32.

“Really, you have a white water river near every major metropolitan area,” Marty Law said. “It’s great boating, but you have to be prepared and ready to be on those waterways and have some knowledge and experience.”
Arrests for boating under the influence have held steady, fluctuating from more than 100 in 2005 and 2009 to only 46 in 2010 and 10 this year.

“It’s not uncommon to run into BUIIs,” said Oregon State Police Sergeant Ron Martin in Springfield. “Once ever couple of weeks we’ll be on the river, so just from the number of patrols we don’t run into that many, but we’ll get several a year, 10-12 depending on the season.”

Law said arrests can vary as different departments crack down on certain areas, changing the overall numbers, but for the most part he’s been encouraged by what he’s seen on the water.

“For a number of years we did campaigns on boating and alcohol by the operator but also passengers,” Law said. “That’s a critical piece, but what we’re hearing and what we’ve seen in surveys we’ve done is that social acceptance of drinking and operating a motorboat is down.”

On Thursday, Polk County’s Rice spent time checking crafts and speaking with boaters, even tagging Western Oregon student Meza for failing to carry a life jacket.