the weekend<\/a>.<\/p>\nAs temperatures rise across the state, officials say more families are heading to lakes and waterways, making boating and water safety awareness more critical than ever.<\/p>\n
Texas Game Warden Amelia Springer said one of the most important steps boaters can take before heading onto the water is ensuring they have the proper safety equipment on board.<\/p>\n
\u201cBefore you get your boat out on the water, you want to make sure that you have plenty of life jackets on board,\u201d Springer said.<\/p>\n
Game wardens say they increase patrols across Texas lakes during the summer months to check vessels for required safety equipment, including life jackets, fire extinguishers, horns and whistles.<\/p>\n
Springer said many boaters pull vessels out of storage after months of inactivity and may not realize equipment needs to be updated or replaced.<\/p>\n
Officials are also warning against boating while intoxicated. While consuming alcohol on a boat is legal in Texas, operating a vessel under the influence is not.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s not illegal to drink while you are out on a boat. However, it is illegal to be boating while intoxicated,\u201d Springer said.<\/p>\n
Texas Parks and Wildlife also reminds boaters that anyone born on or after Sept. 1, 1993, must complete a boater education course before operating a vessel on Texas waterways.<\/p>\n
Authorities say taking proper precautions and preparing before heading onto the water can help prevent tragedies during the busy summer boating season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Texas Game Wardens urge water safety as summer heats up, following a tragic drowning at Lake Brownwood. Officials…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":311499,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[168,170,169],"class_list":["post-311498","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-lubbock","tag-lubbock","tag-lubbock-headlines","tag-lubbock-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311498","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=311498"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311498\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/311499"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=311498"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=311498"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=311498"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}