Spokane7
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July 26, 2010 in City
Deputies crack down on life jacket violations
Exposed boulders at Flora Rapids on the Spokane River create an obstacle for river floaters below the Barker Bridge on Sunday. The Spokane County Sheriff’s Office has adapted a zero-tolerance policy regarding its mandatory life jacket usage law.
(Full-size photo)(All photos)
Hundreds of people had fun floating down the Spokane River Sunday, but 45 probably didn’t.
Sheriff’s Deputy Wade Nelson said he and two other marine enforcement officers issued about 45 citations for failure to wear life jackets.
The standard penalty is a $76 fine if violators don’t try to get away when a deputy on the riverbank orders them to come ashore.
Deputies have boats and trail vehicles to chase down scofflaws.
“There were a few people who, I think, thought about it, but no one actually ran today,” Nelson said.
A county ordinance requires boaters and floaters to wear life preservers between the Idaho state line and Plante’s Ferry Park, and in the stretch between the western Spokane city boundary and the Nine Mile Falls boat launch.
Just having a life vest handy isn’t enough.
“If you’re not wearing it, you’re probably going to get a ticket if we see you,” Nelson said.
“It’s why we bring ours,” Jamie Scott said. “Just in case.”
She was part of a nine-member, three-family group from Spokane Valley and Cheney that had just left the river at a take-out point on Flora Pit Road.
Dave Bailey said the group floats the river a couple of times a week when the weather is hot.
“It’s a really pretty ride,” Kassandra Bailey said. “You get to see a lot of Spokane.”
Nelson said several years of “emphasis” patrols like Sunday’s have gotten people’s attention. “Probably a majority” now comply with the life-jacket law.
A group of first-time floaters getting ready to launch their shiny new “River Rat” tubes near the Harvard Road Bridge had pristine life jackets to go with them.
“We just stopped down there at the General Store and bought a couple of floats,” said a woman who identified herself only as Britney. “It looked like they were selling out of them.”
A companion named Jason said enforcement of the life-jacket ordinance seemed like “a good idea.”
Spokane resident Mallory McCanna also equipped herself at the General Store when her friend Julia Komarov asked her to go tubing.
McCanna joked that Komarov was peeved when she bought a fancy high-backed craft that dwarfed Komarov’s inner tube.
“She calls it a yacht,” McCanna said. “It’s nice. They even blew it up for me.”
Both women donned life jackets as they pushed off.
With temperatures in the low 90s, several people pronounced the weather “perfect” for floating the river or just hanging out along the shore and splashing in the shallow water.
Ken Payne and Scott Turk said their two-family group floated on Saturday and came back to the Harvard Road launch area Sunday with folding chairs.
“We’re just kind of hanging out today,” Payne said.
“We go in, cool off and come back out,” said Turk.
Life jackets aren’t required for people swimming near shore, but most of the children splashing at the Harvard Road launch Sunday afternoon wore them anyway.
Bakaran Singh, 12, of Post Falls, said he tried floating in the shallow water, but it was “hard to do when there are rocks around you. It hurts.”
That’s one reason life jackets are required for people on tubes and other watercraft, Nelson said.
“Our river is inherently dangerous, even in low water,” Nelson said. “When your head gets cracked, you’re not going to come back up.”
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Spokane_Citizen on July 26 at 6:17 a.m.
So the county is spending its ever dwindling law enforcement resources hectoring people floating the river about wearing flotation devices. Of course it’s easier (and safer) than actually dealing with criminals, and it does provide a source of ‘easy pickins’ revenue.
philipgregory on July 26 at 7:06 a.m.
‘Spokane_Citizen’ I couldn’t have said it better.
What is going on in Washington? What has happened to people’s concern for their personal freedoms? You know, those things of such concern to the ones who wrote the US constitution!
Yes, some people sometimes do stupid reckless things. But, we NEED the freedom that goes with the risk of those people hurting themselves.
As long as they are not hurting others then Spokane county Sheriff, Washington state Police, LEAVE US ALONE!
If people don’t start complaining to their legislators you will one day discover you live in a police state with laws governing every thing you do.
Albert on July 26 at 8:40 a.m.
However…there is yet another thought: Think about the savings that would be wasted looking for another drowned person. Life jackets save lives and trips to the ER for the “mostly” uninsured. People think that they can survive the river, get to drinking - or worse - fall overboard, or slip off the tube, and then we are looking at searches, over-time payroll, fuel, equipment, etc. etc. All because a Brave Heart felt they could buck the river and the rocks.
I completely agree with these citations to save injuries and lives. It also increases revenues, which offset the investment of time to insure safety. You all know that I’m not a fan of the SPD, or SO, however I do agree with this prevention measure.
rob_brewer on July 26 at 8:47 a.m.
The work these marine deputies do in ensuring people wear PFDs directly impacts the number of recoveries the volunteer Dive Rescue team needs to perform annually. As Deputy Nelson points out, the waters in Spokane County are not inherently safe. Thanks Deputy Nelson and the other marine deputies for trying to make some common sense sink in and for reducing the risk for our volunteers!
Spokane_Citizen on July 26 at 10:28 a.m.
Oh yes, let’s ignore policing criminal activity so we can prosecute PFD violations. Just another nanny state effort at great expense, while the real problems go unaddressed. While we’re at it, let’s start creating more laws to protect us from anything that might hurt us. Maybe require facefull face helmets to protect those daredevil flyfishermen (those hooks are sharp, and I once caught one in my ear…..IT COULDA BEEN MY EYE! OH THE TERROR!). No wonder kids don’t want to go outside…we’ve taught them it’s much safer to sit in front of the video game than take a chance on experiencing the great outdoors. Perhaps the deputies could spend time checking that everyone has a suitable sunscreen on so society doesn’t have to suffer the expense of the inevitable melanomas that such foolhardy behavior will entail. It’s a slippery slope, and if society wants to spend money it doesn’t have trying to protect everyone from everything, like some pathetically frightened elderly aunt….so be it.
MrNatural on July 26 at 10:58 a.m.
There is nothing wrong with requiring a PFD while floating the river. Same goes for seatbelts in cars and helmets on bikes.
I realize that people get indignant when authorities regulate common sense but beings that common sense seems to be in short supply in the general populous lately there doesn’t seem to be a better alternative.
There’s nothing at all wrong with saving lives.
lewis8457 on July 26 at 11:01 a.m.
their concern for our safety is just another way to fill their pockets. I can’t ride a bicycle with out a helmet but I can get murdered by a Spokane police officer in a mini mart and nothing is done………go figure
BigE on July 26 at 11:07 a.m.
I miss my pathetically frightened elderly aunt, she was a good lady, just needed nerve pills.
No one is protected from anything, about all they are trying to do is nip the stupidity, water = danger, take your chances, if you drown it is your fault.
I don’t drive and talk on my phone, I make sure anyone in my boat is safe, we do the speed limit, don’t give them anymore money than you have to.
Support the troops, bring our men and women home.
MrNatural on July 26 at 11:18 a.m.
…I’m not entirely sure but aren’t these officers enforcing a law delegated to them by local ordinance? So wouldn’t you focus your dismay on the elected officials who passed said ordinance and not those officers who most likely have been putting up with a “raft of crap” enforcing it?
Anyone out there know the factual (not speculative) who, what, when, where, and why of this lifejacket ordinance?
JayNW on July 26 at 11:34 a.m.
Mr Natural, you are correct.
I believe last year, we had numerous people die in the rivers around here (not just the Spokane) b/c they were not wearing PFD’s while floating/swimming in the river. The local agencies in this state spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to recover dead bodies, all when it could have been avoided by wearing a $15 life jacket.
Plus, many of the deputies are reservists who help w/ marine patrol, they go out there and risk their life FOR FREE. Maybe some of you complainers should try it…or you too afraid?
I can’t believe that I’m still surprised by the stupidity and ungratefulness of people in this community.
bryenworcht on July 26 at 12:04 p.m.
are there any signs anywhere that say those who dont wear them will be legally punished? there is a parking spot in front of my building that cars park in everyday, usually several times a day. there is no sign saying you cant park there. however i watch parking enforcement write tickets for the cars that are parked there CONSTANTLY. it is unfair that peiople are cited with having pay a penalty that they cant afford, because theres no sign that the city CAN AFFORD.
shakeitup147 on July 26 at 12:22 p.m.
Just float the river up to state line in Idaho. They don’t have overbearing life jacket demands. Get your sun tan on, float the river, and avoid the sherif’s deputy and his posse.
horse_feathers on July 26 at 1:35 p.m.
Yea and why your in State Line Idaho buy your liquor and dish soap and take advantage of filling your tank at a much cheaper rate. Idaho is sounding more and more like freedom.
WillyC on July 26 at 2:12 p.m.
Spokane_Citizen gets it.
Whatever happened to freedom people? Its disgusting to see what we have become. This idea that government at all levels needs to take care of us from cradle to grave and legislate every facet of our lives is ridiculous. I am an adult, and as an adult I should be able to decide whether I want to wear a lifejacket on the river.
And Mr. Natural, just because a law is on the books doesn’t mean its always worth enforcing. While the elected officials who wrote/voted for the ordinance deserve scalding, a little common sense by the SPD wouldn’t hurt.
Ron Paul is right when he said we need to take back our government at the local levels. It is sad to see this nanny state BS come to Spokane. May have to vote with my feet and move myself to a more freedom loving state. I.E. Idaho.
MrNatural on July 26 at 2:19 p.m.
http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2010/jul/26/idahos-suicide-rate-2009/
Maybe this will explain the price of freedom…
MrNatural on July 26 at 2:26 p.m.
…well…I won’t argue except to say it’s a matter of opinion and you are most certainly entitled to yours WillyC. Normally it doesn’t make much sense to have a law without enforcement. I personally don’t think the officials deserve a scalding but I agree that a little common sense is needed…but by the river user not the SPD…but that’s just my opinion…
WillyC on July 26 at 2:35 p.m.
HAHAHA
You can’t be serious.
You are going to now try and tell me that Idaho’s loose life jacket laws have somehow contributed to a 22% increase in suicides? Get real. Throwing out some article about suicide rates proves nothing.
WillyC on July 26 at 2:38 p.m.
You are right, the river user does need a little more common sense. Next time the police tell them to pull over they should just keep on floating.
MrNatural on July 26 at 3:12 p.m.
Well WC…I could go deeper into what this infers but like they say about motorcycles “if I have to explain you wouldn’t understand.”…it was a bit off topic but it was in response to the so called admiration of Idaho for having less cost and less regulation.
I will say that when a community invests in its people though the use of taxes and sensible ordinances etc. you afford safety nets and social programs and possibly a better quality of life if only to avert…say…high suicide rates…and in this case less loss of life due to drowning
WillyC on July 26 at 3:45 p.m.
Correlation is not causation. You can’t just assume that Idaho has a higher suicide rate because it has “more freedom” Where is the proof?
Even if I give you that….
In a choice between security and liberty, I chose liberty.
I could go into the unintended consequences of taxes, “sensible ordinances “, and safety nets/social programs, but I would be here all day. I promise you, they do a lot more harm than good.
dms on July 26 at 4:34 p.m.
Spokane Citizen should go on a ‘ride along’ with officers/deputies/troopers to formulate an educated opinion….maybe the day he chooses will be a ‘body recovery’ effort so he can see the difference a day like yesterday makes. Maybe it seems frivolous, but out of the citations issued, media coverage and now word of mouth, people will be safer, play safer and those days of frivolous ticket giving are few and far between… marine patrol carries on with other responsibilities and hopefully a senseless river accident has been avoided. Or dont go on a ride along, watch tv dramas and formulate your opinion based on that…..
west on July 26 at 5:06 p.m.
Idiot rafters..no common sense…
drunkenfly87 on July 26 at 5:33 p.m.
What a scam this is. All this state is concerned about is revenue. What a joke. Little by little they are stripping us of our freedom.It should be a personal choice. After all it is called personal safety. Screw this state. Email the state legislature and tell them to leave us alone.
rockv12 on July 26 at 5:46 p.m.
It’s just stupid….late in the year, the river is flowing slowly and there is basically zero danger of floating around on an innertube. Who wants to wear a lifejacket when floating on an innertube? I was stopped by a sherrif on my sit-on-top kayak out on a small, calm lake and threatened with a $90 ticket…..How in the heck would I drown myself? I just have to stow it in the kayak somewhere to be legal? If I got hit by a boat, it would do no good and what are the odds of that happening? Washington sucks.
rockv12 on July 26 at 5:48 p.m.
Let’s make climbing trees illegal too…that’s unsafe. Let’s make walking close to a cliff illegal…that’s unsafe.
Spokane_Citizen on July 26 at 6:40 p.m.
I’ve lived, and played, on this river all my life (and I’m a senior citizen now myself), as did my grandfather, and his father before him (our family arrived in th 1870’s). I can tell you that the river’s extreme summertime danger is a serious exaggeration. In fact, when I was younger its dangers had achieved mythic proportion. Fear of the river reached such an extreme level during the 1990’s that some council members (notably Phyllis Holmes) argued that allowing people in this ‘death-trap’ of a river at ANY time for ANY reason, should be expressly prohibited. The argument, not so ‘strangely enough’, enjoyed considerable support from the law enforcement community (who is always only too happy to employ martial law measures to protect us from ourselves, as well as to supply budgetary expansion ammunition).
Most of the drowning deaths occur from hypothermia when some drunk(s) wanders into the early spring run-off, not during the summer season. These Barney Fife river PFD citation campaigns don’t occur at that time, and even if they did I don’t think you’re going to find a receptive audience. As for the volunteer marine reserve officers risking their lives to retrieve a dead body…..such activity is patently stupid, unwarranted, and something professional rescue personnel stopped doing years ago.
I’ll tell you how these ordinances are created:
(1) Law enforcement officers approach their respective legislative bodies, describing their current pet public menace concern.
(2) After considerable public testimony, said legislative body enacts yet another ordinance they think will quiet the community’s LEO’s (and their partners in repression, the community’s busy-bodies and nervous nellies).
(3) The Law enforcement community then complains that it lacks the resources to adequately provide enforcement for these ‘critical’ community protective ordinances, and asks for more LEO’s (in an never ending quest for more budget, and more ordinances, and more public fear-mongering). Utterly forgotten is primary task of protecting the public from criminal scumbags (as well as the slow transference of the general public into an appearance of criminality by their resistance to complying with such idiotic ordinances).
(4) Since the requests for public safety regulations are endless, the law enforcement community eventually gives up on enforcing yet another over-reaching and extravagantly expensive ordinance (if it were indeed enforced as promised).
(5) Start the process over with the next public safety boogeyman.
We saw this process play itself out some years ago during the development of the City of Spokane’s great bicycle helmet ordinance debate. Law enforcement officers, community safety professionals, and a cavalcade of hand-wringers spent weeks testifying as to the critical need for such an ordinance. With great fanfare, a draconian bicycle helmet ordinance was enacted. The result…….the law is universally ignored, almost never enforced, and has only created disrespect for the legislative process and the law enforcement community.
I suspect I will hear the hackneyed statement “if it saves just one life it will be worth it”……to this I say “not necessarily”. We make such decisions every day of our existence. As an example, a number of automotive safety studies examining the primary cause of LEO deaths during police pursuits have noted that such deaths could be significantly reduced if police officers wore helmets at all times inside their vehicles. Such well considered safety advice is completely ignored by the LEO community…they plainly care more about not looking goofy than their absolute safety.
At this point in my life, I truly would not be surprised to hear that we ought to mandate that the public exclusively use ‘sporks’ for eating utensils…..knives and forks are obviously too dangerous. How the hell we ever made it out of the cave is a mystery, and miracle.
bszottlinger on July 26 at 6:56 p.m.
Au Natural:
I understand your premise with respect to the Idaho suicide rate but how do you explain the fact that the District of Columbia where all of our elected officials and their minions work ranks # 51 with a rate of 6.1 per 100,000. Even Virginia, where most of them have a residence ranks well below Idaho and Washington at # 33 with a rate of 11.4 per 100,000.
Here is an interesting fact; they actually have boat cops patrolling the Potomac that write tickets for not wearing or having the appropriate number of PFDs depending on the craft. If I recall correctly it was about $215.00 for each one you were short.
Brad
bszottlinger on July 26 at 7:26 p.m.
Spokane_Citizen:
Here is something you could try that worked for us on the Potomac. When Congress is in session, have a member of Congress pilot your craft or at least tell the cops they are the pilot. When Congress is in session members, have immunity so the cops can’t write them a ticket.
You should be able to find one of your Congresspersons to raft the Spokane with you. The party doesn’t matter Republican or Democrat either one will work. It might save you the cost of a ticket.
Hope this helps!
Brad Szottlinger
west on July 26 at 7:45 p.m.
So they put their boats in…couple of feet of water?? jet sleds?? rafts??? I think to do the job.. they need Cobra gun ships! lol
Spokane_Citizen on July 26 at 8:05 p.m.
Brad…thanks for the advice….but I’d rather pay a ticket than ruin a perfectly good day floating the river with a politician from either party. Call me old fashioned, but I’m particular about the company I keep.
PlanB on July 27 at 1:04 a.m.
This is the typical crazy stupid wasteful government intrusion that basically everyone is pissed off about. You can’t fix stupid, but in this case stupid is the insane amount of enforcement that is wasted on essentially saving people from nothing. We don’t need to be fined to save ourselves from the infinitesimal possibility that something bad might happen.
But when something bad does happen, all our idiot representatives respond in a knee-jerk fashion to the hysterical media attention it gets by making sure we take measures which have nothing to do with solving the non-problem.
Similar to strict enforcement of arbitrarily mandated speed limits in an areas which have never seen an accident.
Maybe we should require that every law maker takes Logic 101 at the beginning of every legislative session, or give them a citation if they don’t.
PlanB on July 27 at 1:12 a.m.
Spokane_Citizen - You have in so few well chosen words summarized the idiocracy that has infected us. Well done.