As the busy Fourth of July holiday weekend gets underway, the San Diego County Sheriff\u2019s Office and the U.S. Coast Guard have announced safety-related measures.<\/p>\n
On Friday, the Coast Guard announced it will enforce \u201ctemporary safety zones\u201d for the Big Bay Boom Fourth of July Fireworks show Saturday on the San Diego Bay. According to a news release, Capt. Robert Tucker will set up 1,000-foot radius zones around the barges on north San Diego Bay.<\/p>\n
The Coast Guard will enforce zones from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. at these barges: Embarcadero, Harbor Island Seaport Village and Shelter Island. The zones \u201care necessary to ensure the safety of participants, spectators, official vessels of the event and general users of the waterway,\u201d according to the Coast Guard. During enforcement, \u201cspectators may not anchor, block, loiter in, or impede the transit of official patrol vessels in the regulated areas without the approval of the (port captain) or a designated representative.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tucker, commander of U.S. Coast Guard Sector San Diego, said that everyone \u201cdeserves the opportunity to safely enjoy Independence Day on the water.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cTo support that goal, we are increasing patrols and maintaining safety zones around firework barges to help ensure the safety of all nearby boaters,\u201d Tucker added.<\/p>\n
According to the Coast Guard, all vessel operators wishing to enter a safety zone \u201cmust obtain permission\u201d from the port captain and contact the Coast Guard patrol craft on VHF-FM channels 21 or 16, or the command center via channel 16.<\/p>\n
\u201cViolating these zones is a felony offense,\u201d according to the Coast Guard. \u201cBoaters who enter these zones will be escorted from the area immediately and may be subject to fines of up to $250,000 and\/or up to six years in federal prison.\u201d<\/p>\n
Elsewhere in San Diego County, sheriff\u2019s deputies will conduct impaired driving patrols on Saturday.<\/p>\n
A person convicted for impaired driving face up to over $15,000 in legal and court fees, county officials said in a Thursday news release.<\/p>\n
So far this year in the county, 4,068 people have been arrested for driving under the influence, with the Sheriff\u2019s Office making 593 of those arrests, officials said.<\/p>\n
The Sheriff\u2019s Office stated that residents should \u201cchoose a sober way to go\u201d for Independence Day.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you do drink, be sure to have a designated driver, ride-sharing service or taxi ready,\u201d officials said, adding that \u201cbuzzed driving\u201d is drunk driving.<\/p>\n
A grant from the state Office of Traffic Safety, through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, is paying for the additional patrols, according to the Sheriff\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As the busy Fourth of July holiday weekend gets underway, the San Diego County Sheriff\u2019s Office and the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":385599,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[151352,74,12027,76,75,4450],"class_list":["post-385598","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-4th-of-july","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-county-sheriffs-office","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news","tag-u-s-coast-guard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385598","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=385598"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385598\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/385599"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=385598"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=385598"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=385598"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}