By rssfeeds-admin This will be Corporal Rod Macleroy’s 17th summer on marine patrol.
“I enjoy dealing with the people,” he said. “I was the patrol officer for Lay Lake for 14 years so I made a lot of great friends doing this job.”
Macleroy says it’s very common for people to get out on a boat without understanding the right way to drive it.
“People will buy a boat for the first time and just think it’s the next frontier. They can just go anywhere they want to, drive however they want to,” Macleroy said.
ALEA says the rules of driving on the water are like the rules of driving on the road. Stay to the right, don’t drink and boat, and have a life jacket for everyone on board. Another safety feature ALEA says all boats should have is a kill switch attached to the driver.
“If something was to happen and you were to fall out of the boat, that actually kills the motor,” Macleroy said.
ALEA says on the water, marine patrol looks for boaters who are being careless or reckless. In Alabama, it’s a law that to drive a boat, you must have a “vessel endorsement” on your driver’s license.
“I’m sure there’s people that think we don’t do anything and we’re out here just to harass boaters or whatever but we’re not,” said Macleroy. “Our biggest thing is to make sure everybody goes home safe.”
Spending weekends on the water is a summer pastime for many families around central Alabama.
“You’ll have people that don’t run their boats but a couple of times a year, they’ll come out on those weekends, Memorial day, Fourth of July, the weekend before, the weekend after,” said Macleroy. “The people that live on the lake, usually don’t get on the lake. It’s all the people from off the lake that get on the lake. Everybody that lives on the lake, they say ‘we leave town that weekend’.”
Mariah Wright and her family have a jon boat in Riverside. She says ALEA’s water patrols help her feel safer while boating in the summer with her kids.
“They patrol the road, yeah, but that’s one place I feel like doesn’t get patrolled often is the lake. I like that a lot,” Wright said. “Somebody drinking, I’m going to be honest because there’s so many people out here that just be out here drunk and they’re just up riding around and the scary thing is because just like driving a car, you’re not in control of that boat if you’re intoxicated or high.”
ALEA says even people not boating need to be aware of water safety. Keri Melvin brings her boys to the beach at Logan Martin Lake from Remlap multiple times every summer. She says they always use floaties and life vests but on busy weekends like Memorial Day Weekend, she keeps an extra eye on her kids and others in the water.
“Sometimes jet skis will come over here and turn around or whatever so we just stay on the water’s edge just to stay away,” Melvin said. “I advise the kids about boaters, about staying out of their way and everything.”
ALEA says Memorial Day weekend and the Fourth of July weekend will be some of the busiest times out on Alabama’s lakes and rivers.
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