PONTIAC, Mich. (WXYZ) — Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard says this upcoming holiday weekend will see a lot of celebrations, but the safety warnings are very serious given what’s happened in the last week.
“We have 450 lakes in Oakland County. We want people to have a blast, but this time is also prone to tragedies with a really hot weekend like we’re going to” says Bouchard.
He adds that the 4th of July holiday weekend is it time to consider what can also go wrong.
“A boating death earlier this week preliminarily looks like alcohol may have been a factor. Please don’t mix drinking and swimming, and drinking and piloting a watercraft. Those are are two biggest causes of death” says Bouchard.
In addition, he urges anyone setting off fireworks to read instructions carefully. He says “Every year we see emergency rooms fill up with finger and eye injuries. That can even happen with sparklers.” With hot weather continuing, deputies will also be stepping up patrols on the roads and water.
“We’ll have extra people out on the lakes and the roads looking for people piloting or driving impaired. We don’t want to arrest anyone. Make that useless time for us please” says Bouchard.
The Sheriff adds if you are using fireworks, keep a hose and bucket of water nearby just to be extra safe.
