Park Staff Deal With Numerous Holiday Weekend Incidents

Once again, ideal weather conditions brought thousands of visitors to the park over the Memorial Day weekend. Park personnel and numerous state and county law enforcement, fire and emergency medical personnel provided exceptional service to the 135,455 visitors who were recorded over the holiday weekend. Proactive patrols, aggressive enforcement, and educational campaigns for safe boating, water use activities, speed and alcohol, public disorder, and fire prevention were all focus areas for park service personnel. Over the course of the weekend, park personnel responded to nearly 1,000 incidents, including 533 warnings, 201 citations, 35 arrests, 22 medicals, three search and rescue operations, two fatalities and 11,000 visitor contacts. Lake Mead’s interagency dispatch center recorded in excess of 13,000 radio and phone calls. Lake Mead’s implementation of operational leadership (OL) continues to play a significant role to park operations. Nearly all Lake Mead employees have attended OL training and are actively utilizing OL’s key principles. In addition to park wide implementation of OL, superintendent Bill Dickinson rolled out Lake Mead’s “101 Days of Summer” campaign prior to the weekend. Recognizing that summertime is a time when visitors tend to be over-anxious and less attentive in their eagerness to enjoy all of their carefully planned events, the park established an interdisciplinary team that focuses on internal and external summer safety messages designed to raise awareness of risks associated with water and shoreline recreation in a desert environment. As we all know from OL, eagerness and inattention can be a tragic combination that contributes to preventable accidents. Primary safety messages over the holiday weekend included the following:

• Wear it for life! Life jackets help you survive the unexpected and let you return to enjoy the lake again.
• Boat safe. Follow the navigation rules. Maintain a proper lookout. Maintain a safe speed for the conditions.
• Boat smart. Watch the weather.  It can make lake conditions change rapidly. Make sure your boat has all needed safety equipment.
• Boat sober. If you drink, be responsible and don’t operate the vessel.  Heat and alcohol don’t mix.