Our new summer intern, Nathan Gill, has this from the water patrol:
The Missouri State Water Patrol arrested three boaters for operating a boat while intoxicated, and gave 46 others warnings and citations during a Sunday stakeout on Smithville Lake.
Officers, who had set up a sobriety checkpoint near the Route W bridge, stopped 61 boats and gave 14 sobriety tests in an effort to discourage drinking and boating. It is illegal to operate a boat in Missouri with a blood alcohol level of 0.10 percent or higher.
According to the patrol, about one third of all boating accidents involve alcohol, and sobriety checkpoints are a tool used to deter boaters from drinking while operating watercraft.
| Sara Shepherd
