BERN TOWNSHIP, Pa. – With a very busy 4th of July weekend expected to draw visitors from all over, officials at Blue Marsh are urging everyone to use safety on the water.<\/p>\n
“Our message is simple; Drive sober, drive drug free, arrive alive,” says Bern Twp. Police Chief Brett Forry.<\/p>\n
That message also applies on the water. Officials at Blue Marsh Lake are reminding people there’s no alcohol permitted at Blue Marsh and driving a boat or watercraft under the influence can get you a BUI.<\/p>\n
“We are trained to detect the signs of impairment boating and conduct sobriety tests on the water,” says Sgt. Travis Miller, with the PA Fish & Boat Commission.<\/p>\n
In 2025, the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission made 27 arrests for people boating under the influence, that can also include the use of drugs or even medications.<\/p>\n
“Many people don’t realize that medications can impair judgment, reaction time and driving ability,” says Forry.<\/p>\n
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WFMZ-TV | Chad Blimline<\/p>\n
Jonah Eckert, Chief Park Ranger at Blue Marsh, expects big crowds this weekend.<\/p>\n
“We’re going to have plenty of swimming activity this week and this weekend because of the hot weather,” says Eckert. “[We] want to remind people swimming in a lake or river is different than swimming in a pool.”<\/p>\n
For those planning to navigate on the water, officials say you should take a boater safety course before getting out on the lake.<\/p>\n
All around the lake there are different buoys marking what you need to know about certain areas; some say ‘Slow, No Wake’, others around the swimming area just direct you to \u2018Keep Out\u2019.<\/p>\n
Life jackets also play a huge role in saving lives.<\/p>\n
“87% of the people who drowned in recreational boating incidents were not wearing life jackets,” says Miller. “We want to promote safe boating by asking you to always wear your life jacket.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BERN TOWNSHIP, Pa. – With a very busy 4th of July weekend expected to draw visitors from all…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":232240,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[100414,38170,100415,99415,77227,84643,1856,86952,128,130,129,93669,18527],"class_list":["post-232239","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-reading","tag-alcohol-ban","tag-blue-marsh-lake","tag-boater-safety-course","tag-boating-under-the-influence","tag-fourth-of-july","tag-impairment","tag-law-enforcement","tag-life-jackets","tag-reading-city","tag-reading-city-headlines","tag-reading-city-news","tag-swimming-safety","tag-water-safety"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232239","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=232239"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232239\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/232240"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=232239"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=232239"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=232239"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}