Think before popping a top on a beer this summer while behind the wheel of a boat.
A new bill, classifying a DUI resulting in a homicide as a class C felony, the same as if the accident occurred while driving a car, is making it's way through the Alabama legislature.
According to the National District Attorneys Association, ndaa.org, a person convicted of vehicular homicide because of a DUI can receive a sentence from one year and one day to 10 years, and a fine of up to $5,000.
Rep. Barry Mask said the bill was approved by a house committee last week and will go before the House next week.
"I feel pretty confident we will be able to get it on the floor," said Mask, who has had two boating DUI homicides in his district since 2006. "I feel pretty good that we will be able to get it passed in the House."
Lt. Erica Shipman with the Marine Police Division said last year, of the 16 boating accidents that resulted in deaths, four were caused by alcohol.
Mask said they need to send a message about drinking and operating a boat.
"No. one, you don't need to be operating a boat and drinking," Mask said. "You don't need to be drunk operating a boat. Number two, if you do, though, and you kill somebody, you're going to be treated just like you were drunk driving a car."
Mask said he thinks people take drinking and driving a boat a lot less seriously than drinking and driving a car.
"You're in a leisure time," Mask said. "You think you can get behind that boat, have several beers and drive and it's not that serious. It is very serious, especially now, more and more people are getting on the lakes, and there's a lot more boating than there used to be."
Shipman said while she thinks people are noticing the dangers of drinking and driving on the water more, they still don't see it the same as doing it behind the wheel of a car.
"For a lot of people drinking and going out, beer and boating go together," Shipman said.
Capt. Matt Brooks, district 3 supervisor for the marine police division, said he thinks people get boating DUI's, not because they don't take it seriously, as much as they don't think it will happen to them.
"There are a lot of factors they don't take into account when out on a boat because alcohol affects you differently in a boat than it does if you are in a vehicle," Brooks said.
Some of these factors include the sun, wind and rocking of the boat, creating what Brooks calls "boater's fatigue."
He said adding alcohol makes the symptoms worse.
"You can go out in a boat for a number of hours and then step out on the dry land and not be able to walk a straight line without having drank a drop of alcohol," Brooks said.
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