ATLANTA — Many people celebrated Independence Day on the water, but for some families and friends it ended with tragedy.
The Georgia Department of Natural Resources released its boating statistics for the 4th of July weekend, which show they had to respond to a few drownings along with one boating fatality.
Law Enforcement Division's final weekend report reflects data from Friday, July 3 through Sunday night, on July 5. It's broken down into six LE regions - Acworth, Gainesville, Thomson, Metter, Albany, and Brunswick.
There's also data collected by the following lakes/regions: Allatoona (Region 1), Blackshear (Region 5), Clarks Hill (Region 3), Hartwell (Region 2), Jackson (Region 3), Lanier (Region 2), Oconee (Region 3) and Sinclair (Region 3).
The data shows Georgia DNR responded three drownings in different LE regions - Gainesville, Metter, and Brunswick.
The chart below form DNR lists the drownings, along with other incidents they responded to.
The numbers that shows statistics for lakes indicate that there was a drowning at Lake Lanier along with boating fatality. 11Alive reported over the weekend that a man was pulled from the water by another swimmer, however he did not survive. The previous afternoon, a man jumped from a moving boat into the waters near Duckett Mill Campground. That incident has was classified as a boating fatality.
The chart below lists other incidents as well by lake/region.
There were no alcohol involved boating incidents, however DNR reported there were several regions where BUIs - boating under the influence - were issued.
Out of the 29 BUIs, the Gainesville region had 13, with Thomson following with 8. For the data listed under lakes, Lake Lanier, had the highest number of BUIs at nine.
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