(Des Moines)– A formal request for a night-time speed limit for boats on the Iowa Great Lakes was presented earlier this week to the Iowa Department of Natural Resources Commission, which could adop an administrative rule implementing a limit. The main question right now is just what that limit should be. The request presented to the commission calls for a 30-mile-per-hour limit, but some feel that’s too fast. The DNR’s Law Enforcement Division is researching the recommendation. The commission is expected to take formal action at its December meeting.
Only one lake in Iowa already has a night-time speed limit. That’s Lake Delhi where boats are limited to 10 miles-per-hour.
Statistics compiled by the Iowa Great Lakes Water Safety Council indicate that six of nine fatal boating accidents over the last 50 years on the Iowa Great Lakes occurred at night. One was after sunset.
Officials admit enforcing the limit would be a challenge.
The issue came to the forefront following a fatal hit-and-run crash on West Lake Okoboji in August that claimed the life of a Perry, Iowa dentist and seriously injured his wife. Justin Nearman of Sioux Falls was allegedly operating the boat that collided with the one the victims were in. Nearman has been charged in connection with the incident and is scheduled to go on trial in Dickinson County District Court later this winter.
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