Correcting the myth about Parker Strip..

(riverdave) · (riverdave) **Join Date: May 2007** 05-24-2007, 3:20 PM

It was mentioned several times that Parker Strip was completely outta control, and dangerous. I mentioned passing people in the water by 35' - 50' and people thought I was outta my mind.. Those people don't realize how narrow this strip of water actually is though.

Here's the actual truth about Parker Strip from Alan Nelson aka BoatCop on hotboat (incidentally head of all water sherriff water operations in parker for La Paz County), on whether or not it's the highest death toll this side of the mississippi (as one person put it).

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Back in the '70s that may have been true.

But in the last 20 years, the accident rate has been greatly reduced. Over the last 20 years we have been averaging around 18-20 reported accidents per year. Now that's for the entire County. Maybe 2 or 3 of them are from parts other than the Strip. As far as fatalities, we've had no more than 2 fatal accidents per year over those 20 years, and in more than half those years there were none. (albeit in some of those accidents there were multiple fatalities in the same accident)

Last year (2006) there were 10 total reported accidents and one fatal accident in the entire county. The fatal was down in Cibola and not on the Strip.

According to the 2006 Watercraft Survey, The Parker Strip has the 3rd highest Boat use of any waterway in the State, only behind Lake Havasu and Lake Mohave. Realize that the Parker Strip is only 12 miles long and 200 yards wide at the most, and Havasu and Mohave are huge in comparison.

For us to have THE lowest accident rate of any major waterway in the State is nothing short of miraculous. Just as a comparison, the Bullhead City/Laughlin area has less than 10% of the boat use that we do, but has twice the number of accidents.

Now I'm not saying that there's any correlation between the drastic drop in Parker Strip Accidents and my tenure here, but the numbers began dropping around the same time I came on-board with the County Boating Program. But.............

Alan

(Message edited by riverdave on May 24, 2007)