LAS VEGAS, Nev. (FOX5) – So far this year, we continue to see tragedy after tragedy on Lake Mead.
Most recently, the body of 58-year-old Greg Bell was discovered days after he went missing while paddleboarding on a windy night.
MORE: Family of missing man confirms discovery of body at Lake Mead
Now, safety advocates are doing their part to educate visitors and locals about the dangers of Lake Mead.
“The numbers don’t lie. We tragically lost more than 28 people over the last four years, and we want to drastically decrease these numbers and possibly bring it back to zero,” said Bart Cops, safety advocate with the Lake Mead Community Outreach Boating Safety Class.
Local police believe the answer lies in community outreach and education. “Do you have your life jacket? Do you have your marine radio? Which is extremely, extremely important,” he said.
“You don’t have to do anything other than push the button and it will send GPS to the rangers, and they’ll get that information immediately and be able to take care of you when you can’t speak or do anything else,” said boaters Ed and Melissa Buckalew, showing off their radio. “They’re waterproof, they float.”
Cops hosted a boating safety course on Lake Mead Saturday, focused on making sure boaters have the required knowledge, licenses, and equipment to operate a vessel and help others on board.
“The questions that people asked us today were basically like, ‘Why do I have to wear a life jacket? I’m a good swimmer.’ Because it can turn south pretty quickly, you can get exhausted, and Lake Mead is really, really, really, really big,” said Cops. “We have to cover 1.5 million acres here. Lake Mead is the biggest man-made lake in the United States, and it can turn into a wild raging ocean.”
Weather plays a big role in the dangers on the water. Cops said Saturday was a good example of a day you might want to skip the lake or use extreme caution, with high winds and choppy waters.
“A lot of people think that they can hop off their boat and then go ahead and go swim from their boat a couple of hundred feet off from their boat and then come back, but sometimes it’s windy, the boat drifts away, and they can’t swim fast enough to get back to it and then they get into trouble,” said Bryan Sloan, Owner of TowboatUS Lake Mead.
“Matter of fact, we saved a couple of people that jumped off their cabin cruiser just on the other side of these islands they were trashed, and it was windy, the boat drifted away,” said Melissa Buckalew.
“The weather can change in an instant, and if you are very new to it, you can find yourself in the world of trouble real quick,” said Ed Buckalew.
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